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Accenture (ACN) Stock Moves -1.19%: What You Should Know

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Accenture (ACN - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $334.95, moving -1.19% from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.22%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.19%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.54%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the consulting company had lost 18.38% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Business Services sector's loss of 24.14% and lagged the S&P 500's loss of 6.58% in that time.

Accenture will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Accenture to post earnings of $2.36 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 16.26%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $14.66 billion, up 21.31% from the year-ago period.

ACN's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $10.54 per share and revenue of $59.85 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +19.77% and +18.44%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Accenture. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Accenture is holding a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) right now.

Digging into valuation, Accenture currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 32.16. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 20.87.

Also, we should mention that ACN has a PEG ratio of 3.22. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. ACN's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.16 as of yesterday's close.

The Consulting Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 34, which puts it in the top 14% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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