Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.21 EPS

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The information technology services provider reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.21, FiscalAI reports. The firm had revenue of $18.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $18.51 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.59 EPS. Accenture updated its FY 2026 guidance to 13.520-13.900 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from Accenture’s conference call:

• Strong quarter financials with $18.7 billion revenue (up 5% L.C.), $20.9 billion bookings, adjusted EPS of $3.94 (+10% YoY), adjusted operating margin up 30 bps to 17%, and $1.5 billion free cash flow while returning $3.3 billion to shareholders.
• Advanced AI momentum continued as advanced AI bookings reached $2.2 billion (nearly double YoY) and revenue about $1.1 billion this quarter, but the company said this will be the last quarter it discloses these specific advanced AI metrics.
• Strengthening capabilities via partnerships and M&A, including a 65% stake in DLB Associates to enter the high-growth data-center engineering market and $374 million in investments across six strategic acquisitions to expand AI, cloud, security, and industry expertise.
• FY26 guidance reaffirmed with revenue growth of 2–5% in local currency (estimated 3–6% ex-federal), adjusted operating margin of 15.7–15.9%, EPS guidance of $13.52–$13.90, ~$3 billion in planned acquisitions, and at least $9.3 billion in shareholder returns.
• Business optimization charges totaled $308 million in Q1 (bringing six-month charges to $923 million), including $58 million more than expected this quarter, which weighed on GAAP EPS and the effective tax rate.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of ACN opened at $269.84 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $252.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $264.34. Accenture has a 52-week low of $229.40 and a 52-week high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $177.68 billion, a PE ratio of 22.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.26.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 13th will be issued a dividend of $1.63 per share. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, January 13th. Accenture’s payout ratio is 53.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ACN. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Mizuho cut their price target on Accenture from $348.00 to $309.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $330.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday. Rothschild Redb cut Accenture from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Accenture from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $296.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Accenture

In other news, insider Manish Sharma sold 6,902 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,725,569.02. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,860 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $465,018.60. This represents a 78.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.57, for a total transaction of $2,246,130.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 23,516 shares in the company, valued at $5,868,888.12. This represents a 27.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 33,319 shares of company stock valued at $8,335,225. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Accenture

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Accenture in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at $60,000. Wealth Watch Advisors INC bought a new stake in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. Darwin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the 2nd quarter valued at about $223,000. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia increased its position in shares of Accenture by 23.0% in the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 828 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.