Jefferies analysts said consulting giant Accenture’s (NYSE:ACN) guidance implies growth will continue to slowdown, “which is worth calling out.”
Accenture shares dipped nearly 6% on Friday after the professional services company reported its fiscal third quarter results, highlighting an ongoing decline in new bookings.
The company, which is facing challenges from a sluggish U.S. federal contracting landscape, posted third quarter bookings of $19.7B, implying a fall of 6% in U.S. dollars and 7% in local currency, and were below estimates of $20.03B.
“Mgmt guidance has proved to be conservative in the past and the question of how conservative will almost certainly be debated again this quarter given all of the macro uncertainty,” said Jefferies analyst Surinder Thind in a note.
Jefferies set a price target of $315 on the stock.
Seeking Alpha and Wall Street are bullish and consider the stock a Buy, while Seeking Alpha’s Quant ratings consider it a Hold. The stock declined nearly 19% so far this year.