Accenture (ACN) to Release Quarterly Earnings on Thursday

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) is expected to post its quarterly earnings results before the market opens on Thursday, March 20th. Analysts expect Accenture to post earnings of $2.84 per share and revenue of $16.64 billion for the quarter. Parties that wish to register for the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect Accenture to post $13 EPS for the current fiscal year and $14 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $324.21 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a market cap of $202.89 billion, a PE ratio of 27.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50 day moving average of $361.86 and a 200 day moving average of $358.02.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com cut Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Baird R W upgraded Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.65.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,845,916.50. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,073,892.12. This trade represents a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Accenture stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 36.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,438 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,905 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $6,486,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.