Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Issues FY25 Earnings Guidance

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) updated its FY25 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $12.43-12.79 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share 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 Down 2.7 %

ACN stock opened at $347.61 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $360.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $336.31. Accenture has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.31 billion, a PE ratio of 30.41, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.27 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 16th will be paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.79%.

Accenture declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to buy up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on ACN shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Bank of America upped their target price on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $374.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. The trade was a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 20,324 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.