Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Posts Earnings, Beats Estimates with $0.02 EPS

VaselineSeptember 27, 2024

0 4 minutes read

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Your Free Report ) released its earnings results on Thursday. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.77 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 10.79% and a return on equity of 27.48%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. In the same quarter last year, the firm posted EPS of $2.71. Accenture updated its Q1 2025 guidance to EPS and FY 2025 guidance to 12,550-12,910 EPS.

Accenture stocks rose 5.6%

Shares of NYSE:ACN opened at $355.81 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $333.51 and its 200-day moving average is $321.39. Accenture has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $222.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.58, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture raises dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10. This represents a dividend of $5.92 on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Analysts on Wall Street are forecasting an increase

Want more great investment ideas?

Several research firms recently weighed in on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley downgraded Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 26th . UBS Group raised Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Accenture in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $361.77, based on data from MarketBeat.

Check out our latest review of Accenture

Internal activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total transaction of $927,660.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,390,445.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available via this hyperlink. In other Accenture news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total value of $2,696,402.25. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC’s website. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value of $927,660.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock worth $6,912,635. 0.07% of shares are held by insiders.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

About Accenture

(Get a free report)

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, technology and operations services worldwide. The company provides application services including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software engineering and quality, data management; intelligent automation including robotic process automation, natural language processing and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI); metaverse; and sustainability services.