Rating Company
Date
Buy
North America
Accenture Plc
5 December 2012
Company Update
Price at 5 Dec 2012 (USD) Price target 69.60 75.00 71.39 - 51.74
United States
TMT
Computer Services & IT Consulting
Reuters ACN.N
Bloomberg ACN UN
Exchange Ticker NYS ACN
52-week range
Has Consulting Bottomed?
Share gains to drive above-industry growth On December 19, we estimate ACN to post 1Q13 revs of $7.34bn (+3.8% Y/Y, +6.8% cc) and EPS of $1.06. With the IT spending environment remaining mixed as 2013 nears (early indications suggest flat budgets next year), we continue to believe that ACN will continue above-market growth from share gains through transformational engagements and industry-specific BPO growth. The key for further upside in ACN shares will be a clear bottoming of Consulting with an expected rebound looking more likely in 2HFY13. We believe ACN will reiterate FY13 guidance, potentially shading the high end of its EPS range. We maintain our Buy rating and $75 target price.
Consulting poised to ramp next year with continued healthy Outsourcing
Bryan Keane Research Analyst (+1) 415 617-4246 bryan.keane@db.com Ashish Sabadra Research Associate (+1) 415 617-3329 ashish.sabadra@db.com Matt Diamond Research Associate (+1) 415 617-3345 matt.diamond@db.com
After calling for a moderate Consulting slowdown in the first half of FY13, ACN now expects the practice to ramp through the year with bookings converting to revenues at a slower rate (longer-term projects). We see Consulting growing at 1.3% cc for the quarter before slightly improving to 1.5% in 2Q13 and 2.5% in 2H13 as clients continue business-wide transformational programs. Outsourcing in our view should maintain its healthy growth rate, and we expect a ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth at 11.5% cc. On bookings, we expect 2.0% Y/Y growth to $7.9bn ($4.3bn Consulting, $3.7bn Outsourcing) as ACN’s stellar 4Q bookings (up 9%