William Blair Forecasts Accenture's Q1 Earnings (NYSE:ACN)

Key Points

• William Blair has raised its Q1 2026 earnings per share forecast for Accenture from $3.55 to $3.83, reflecting a positive outlook for the company's performance.
• Accenture will increase its quarterly dividend to $1.63 per share, signaling a solid return to investors and representing an annualized yield of 2.7%.
• The company's stock has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from analysts, with a majority issuing buy ratings, while several have adjusted target prices downward.

Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) - Investment analysts at William Blair increased their Q1 2026 earnings per share estimates for Accenture in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, September 25th. William Blair analyst M. Nolan now forecasts that the information technology services provider will earn $3.83 per share for the quarter, up from their prior forecast of $3.55. The consensus estimate for Accenture's current full-year earnings is $12.73 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Accenture's Q4 2026 earnings at $3.44 EPS, FY2026 earnings at $13.83 EPS, Q1 2027 earnings at $3.76 EPS, Q2 2027 earnings at $3.43 EPS, Q3 2027 earnings at $3.80 EPS, Q4 2027 earnings at $3.73 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $14.71 EPS.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Rothschild Redb downgraded Accenture from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. UBS Group cut their target price on Accenture from $363.00 to $315.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen cut their target price on Accenture from $313.00 to $295.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Accenture from $372.00 to $285.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $301.91.

Accenture Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of ACN stock opened at $239.43 on Monday. Accenture has a 1 year low of $229.40 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $253.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $285.81. The company has a market cap of $149.96 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.30.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 25th. The information technology services provider reported $3.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.98 by $0.05. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.45% and a net margin of 11.02%.The business had revenue of $17.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.34 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.66 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Accenture has set its FY 2026 guidance at 13.190-13.570 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at EPS.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a $1.63 dividend. This represents a $6.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.48. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. Accenture's payout ratio is currently 48.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Accenture news, insider Angela Beatty sold 203 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.34, for a total transaction of $57,315.02. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,249 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,482,002.66. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 2,251 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.45, for a total value of $635,794.95. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 8,109 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,387.05. This trade represents a 21.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,954 shares of company stock valued at $834,280 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Accenture

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Viawealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Viawealth LLC now owns 1,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $408,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $512,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. First National Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 9,420 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $2,939,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 269 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $84,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA lifted its stake in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA now owns 11,777 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $3,675,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

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.

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