Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Announces Earnings Results

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) issued its earnings results on Thursday. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. Accenture updated its Q1 2025 guidance to EPS and its FY 2025 guidance to 12.550-12.910 EPS.

Accenture Price Performance

ACN traded down $6.11 on Friday, reaching $349.70. 2,575,382 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,782,510. The company has a market cap of $219.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.02, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $333.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $321.23. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This is a boost from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Accenture’s payout ratio is 47.25%.

Accenture announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to repurchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler Companies reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research report on Friday, September 20th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Barclays cut their price target on Accenture from $390.00 to $350.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 17th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Accenture from $340.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $364.64.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.22, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Accenture news, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.00, for a total value of $472,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 38,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,149,550. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Kathleen R. Mcclure sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 40,070 shares in the company, valued at $12,390,445.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

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.