Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $16.41 billion for 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture updated its Q1 2025 guidance to EPS and its FY 2025 guidance to 12.550-12.910 EPS.

Accenture Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $1.14 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $354.67. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 716,960 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,772,573. Accenture has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $222.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.66, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $333.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $321.39.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.48 per share. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Accenture from $395.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Accenture from $293.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $363.95.

Accenture announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,564,161.45. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 8,145 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $331.05, for a total transaction of $2,696,402.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 22,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,161.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 over the last ninety days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising 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) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.