Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Releases FY25 Earnings Guidance

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) issued an update on its FY25 earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $12.43-12.79 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.74. The company issued revenue guidance of +4-7% yr/yr to $67.49-$69.44 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $68.62 billion. Accenture also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 12.430-12.790 EPS.

Accenture Trading Up 7.1 %

Shares of Accenture stock traded up $24.55 on Thursday, hitting $372.16. The stock had a trading volume of 6,069,188 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,694,376. The company's 50 day moving average price is $360.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $336.31. The stock has a market cap of $232.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 52-week low of $278.69 and a 52-week high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.27 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be issued a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $370.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $374.82.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661 in the last quarter. 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.