Zacks Research Has Negative Outlook of Accenture Q3 Earnings

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) – Equities research analysts at Zacks Research lowered their Q3 2025 earnings estimates for shares of Accenture in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, January 8th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now anticipates that the information technology services provider will post earnings of $3.21 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $3.38. The consensus estimate for Accenture’s current full-year earnings is $12.74 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Accenture’s FY2025 earnings at $12.48 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $3.20 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $3.37 EPS, FY2026 earnings at $13.26 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $14.15 EPS.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on ACN. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Accenture from $450.00 to $455.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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. Wolfe Research raised shares of Accenture from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Accenture currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $385.04.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE ACN opened at $349.93 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.62, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $357.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $344.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,912,962 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,311,102,000 after purchasing an additional 131,544 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Accenture by 1.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,887,266 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,786,256,000 after buying an additional 80,514 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 378.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,491,736 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,941,219,000 after buying an additional 4,345,039 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,823,754 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $1,705,100,000 after acquiring an additional 56,937 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares in the company, valued at $2,062.20. This represents a 99.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Angela Beatty sold 375 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $358.50, for a total value of $134,437.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 36,673 shares of company stock worth $13,507,099. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is 49.66%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.