Yahoo Finance Accenture (ACN) Stock Moves -0.78%: What You Should Know
Accenture (ACN) closed at $199.59 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.78% move from the prior day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.86%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.96%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.13%.
Coming into today, shares of the consulting company had gained 8.49% in the past month. In that same time, the Business Services sector gained 4.61%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.66%.
ACN will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be December 19, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $2, up 2.04% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $11.14 billion, up 5.01% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $7.78 per share and revenue of $45.87 billion. These totals would mark changes of +5.71% and +6.14%, respectively, from last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for ACN. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.01% higher. ACN currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that ACN has a Forward P/E ratio of 25.85 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.46, so we one might conclude that ACN is trading at a premium comparatively.
Meanwhile, ACN's PEG ratio is currently 2.5. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Consulting Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.38 as of yesterday's close.
The Consulting Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 18, which puts it in the top 8% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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