Accenture (ACN)
Forward P/E is 16.43x against a peer median of 14.22x, a ratio of 1.16x — just above the fair range — with trailing P/E 17.78x and PEG 2.31. Latest-quarter revenue grew only 6.2% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), so the premium is not paid for by delivered growth. Delivered demand check: the IT consulting & services group's median growth was 5.2% — demand steady, not accelerating to support a premium.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E compresses to about 15.6x or below (1.10x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth rises above 10% year over year for two quarters. Move further from fair value if growth falls below 3% year over year while the forward multiple stays above 16x.
Accenture is a solid, profitable consultancy, but its shares cost a little more than similar companies while growing at a similar, modest pace. You are paying a small premium without getting extra growth for it. It is not wildly expensive — just priced a bit ahead of what it has delivered.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Accenture returned -2.02% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Accenture: -70.0% (2021-12-29 to 2026-06-30). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 16.43x against a peer median of 14.22x, a ratio of 1.16x — just above the fair range — with trailing P/E 17.78x and PEG 2.31. Latest-quarter revenue grew only 6.2% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), so the premium is not paid for by delivered growth. Delivered demand check: the IT consulting & services group's median growth was 5.2% — demand steady, not accelerating to support a premium. The company’s forward P/E is 16.4× against a peer median of 14.2×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the IT consulting & services group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 5.2% year over year (SEC filings) — demand steady. Latest-quarter sales growth was +6.2% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accenture (ACN) | $241.19 | 16.4× | 17.8× |
| IBM | $251.00 | 19.2× | 21.4× |
| CTSH | $66.38 | 10.9× | 14.3× |
| IT | $218.13 | 14.2× | 19.9× |
| Peer median | 14.2× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Aug 2026 2026-08-31 | $18.7B | — | $2.0B | 3.29 | $2.8B |
| Q/E May 2026 2026-05-31 | $18.7B | — | $2.3B | 3.80 | $3.6B |
| Q/E Feb 2026 2026-02-28 | $18.0B | — | $1.8B | 2.93 | $3.7B |
| Q/E Nov 2025 2025-11-30 | $18.7B | — | $2.2B | 3.54 | $1.5B |
| Q/E Aug 2025 2025-08-31 | $17.6B | — | $1.4B | 2.25 | $3.8B |
| Q/E May 2025 2025-05-31 | $17.7B | — | $2.2B | 3.49 | $3.5B |
| Q/E Feb 2025 2025-02-28 | $16.7B | — | $1.8B | 2.82 | $2.7B |
| Q/E Nov 2024 2024-11-30 | $17.7B | — | $2.3B | 3.59 | $870M |
| Q/E Aug 2024 2024-08-31 | $16.4B | — | $1.7B | 2.66 | $3.2B |
| Q/E May 2024 2024-05-31 | $16.5B | — | $1.9B | 3.04 | $3.0B |
| Q/E Feb 2024 2024-02-29 | $15.8B | — | $1.7B | 2.63 | $2.0B |
| Q/E Nov 2023 2023-11-30 | $16.2B | — | $2.0B | 3.10 | $430M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | Accenture plc |
| Chief executive | Julie Sweet (source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261001220695/en/Accenture-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Fiscal-2026-Results) |
| Sector | Technology — IT Consulting & Other Services — sells IT consulting, outsourcing and technology services to large organisations |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $241.19 |
| Market value (market cap) | $142.3B — share price times shares outstanding of 605,283,767 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR WeightedAverageNumberOfDilutedSharesOutstanding (latest quarter; dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding series is stale for this filer)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $74.2B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $8.4B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $11.6B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Aug 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | -2.02% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -70.0% (2021-12-29 to 2026-06-30) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001467373.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001467373.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/ACN/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.