Financial Contrast: Accenture (ACN) & Its Rivals

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) is one of 271 public companies in the “IT Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Accenture to similar companies based on the strength of its profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Accenture and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Accenture	0	17	10	0	2.37
Accenture Competitors	2001	5661	9483	342	2.47

Accenture presently has a consensus target price of $221.07, suggesting a potential downside of 14.58%. As a group, “IT Services” companies have a potential upside of 26.96%. Given Accenture’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Accenture has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Risk & Volatility

Accenture has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Accenture’s competitors have a beta of 2.16, meaning that their average share price is 116% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Accenture pays an annual dividend of $6.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Accenture pays out 50.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “IT Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.3% and pay out 71.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Accenture has raised its dividend for 20 consecutive years. Accenture is clearly a better dividend stock than its competitors, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

This table compares Accenture and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Accenture	11.28%	26.53%	12.58%
Accenture Competitors	-189.78%	-32.50%	-8.33%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

75.1% of Accenture shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.4% of shares of all “IT Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Accenture shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 20.4% of shares of all “IT Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Accenture and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Accenture	$74.18 billion	$8.37 billion	19.09
Accenture Competitors	$3.34 billion	$227.06 million	-24.89

Accenture has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Accenture is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Accenture beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Accenture

Accenture plc is a global professional services company that helps businesses, governments and other organizations solve operational and technology challenges. Its work includes strategy and management consulting, digital transformation, systems integration and the design, implementation and management of technology solutions. The company serves clients across a broad range of industries and geographies. Its services span cloud computing, data and artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, software and platforms, business process operations, and digital marketing and customer experience.