ACN
Accenture PLC
stock NYSE

When in the share business we cannot judge always from personal experience. The one or two projects we were involved with ACN may have bombed does not mean the company will go bust. As I know a number of Fortune 500 companies will still call on some big consultants like ACN. A growing trend in the corporate world is for CEO s to not take the responsibility of restructuring on themselves but hire a consultant to recommend the exact thing he wants done. This way everyone’s butt is clear and CEO can tell the board this is suggested by consultants, board can sign off based on recommendations of CEO and consultants have no skin in the game and are only recommending

ACN will disappoint, but corporate management and boards will need a consulting firm to point to.
At this point, everyone uses the same models and don't believe any one has better skills in writing code than others, but they need funding and approvals. Thats the ACN advantage

Agreed that ACN is absolute garbage. But would you really say they're any worse than Capgemini, Cognizant Technologies, or *[dry heaves]* Gartner?

ACN was a good example of getting oversold, They had a very high institutional participation that was slanted towards growth. When the AI scare triggered after tepid guidance the massive drop triggered forced selling by institutional funds whose rules required them to exit. That continued for weeks until the dividend funds took notice and value oriented investors who had previously ignored it as overvalued finally showed up.

ACN is a mess internally. Good luck.

The bit I'd pressure-test on ACN is whether AI work is genuinely additive or just replaces other billable work. The lines I'd watch are new bookings vs revenue, book-to-bill, how “GenAI bookings” turn into actual revenue, utilisation/headcount, revenue per employee, margin, and outsourcing vs consulting mix.
If AI bookings jump while total bookings and revenue stay weak, it may be the same work with a new label. If bookings, revenue per employee and margin rise together, your thesis gets much stronger.
I'd also value it with flat revenue and 100–200 bps of margin pressure. Thirteen times earnings is only cheap if the earnings are durable; I'd rather have the thesis survive that case than depend on the market returning to an old multiple.

I think the FDE model becoming industry standard across all of the major vendors will hurt ACN

"If ACN can become masters of AI integration and the common pitfalls, which they should - AI could lead to a time of plenty for them."
You should need to understand what you are investing in. Accenture might present some nice glossy adverts and brochures, but they are some of the lowest people in the consulting business, hired by morons. If you don't know that, you need to dig around as to what "lowest people in the consulting business" means. I could say things, but as I can't back them up with evidence, I'm careful not to. But I would never, ever hire them.
If the morons decide that the overrated Palantir are the new wizards, ACN aren't going to capture this market, and might lose more of their customers.

ACN is one of my high conviction plays that hasn’t come good yet (though there are signs that it’s coming around)

I do something similar.
Schd/FDVV/VYMI are core positions
I also have some larger positions in Mlpx and ET
Then my satellites I choose high yielders that are out of favor with the market but have strong fundamentals and a covered dividend.
I redirect the dividends to my core as I wait until the position is considered fair value then I recycle the capital into other opportunistic buys.
The strategy has worked pretty well for me so far as I typically collect 7-10% yield while waiting on 15-20% capital appreciation.
I will also pick up lower yielding stocks if it is a good opportunity. Such as MSFT at $351, ACN at $119 etc.
As long as you do your research and don't blindly chase yield it's a great way to get growth while building your dividend pile

To set the ball rolling I'll say that mine is Accenture (ACN). It's been badly beaten down on the "AI will kill consulting" narrative, as well as the wider SaaS crash.
I can imagine the market going full 180 on this one. While AI threatens some of the more basic consulting/managed service work from which Accenture generates revenues, many enterprises are currently implementing AI hastily. IMO it is likely many companies mis-implement it and there becomes a need for expert outside help to fix it. Somewhat akin to when many companies outsourced work to India in the 2000s, only to find the results disappointing in many cases, necessitating external help. ACN are also able to take processes in-house leading to lucrative recurring revenue.
If ACN can become masters of AI integration and the common pitfalls, which they should - AI could lead to a time of plenty for them. Higher revenues, higher earnings, and a return to much higher multiples = high upside. With IMO limited downside at this point, rare to find a company of this quality at only 13x earnings

When in the share business we cannot judge always from personal experience. The one or two projects we were involved with ACN may have bombed does not mean the company will go bust. As I know a number of Fortune 500 companies will still call on some big consultants like ACN. A growing trend in the corporate world is for CEO s to not take the responsibility of restructuring on themselves but hire a consultant to recommend the exact thing he wants done. This way everyone’s butt is clear and CEO can tell the board this is suggested by consultants, board can sign off based on recommendations of CEO and consultants have no skin in the game and are only recommending

ACN will disappoint, but corporate management and boards will need a consulting firm to point to.
At this point, everyone uses the same models and don't believe any one has better skills in writing code than others, but they need funding and approvals. Thats the ACN advantage

Agreed that ACN is absolute garbage. But would you really say they're any worse than Capgemini, Cognizant Technologies, or *[dry heaves]* Gartner?

ACN was a good example of getting oversold, They had a very high institutional participation that was slanted towards growth. When the AI scare triggered after tepid guidance the massive drop triggered forced selling by institutional funds whose rules required them to exit. That continued for weeks until the dividend funds took notice and value oriented investors who had previously ignored it as overvalued finally showed up.

ACN is a mess internally. Good luck.

The bit I'd pressure-test on ACN is whether AI work is genuinely additive or just replaces other billable work. The lines I'd watch are new bookings vs revenue, book-to-bill, how “GenAI bookings” turn into actual revenue, utilisation/headcount, revenue per employee, margin, and outsourcing vs consulting mix.
If AI bookings jump while total bookings and revenue stay weak, it may be the same work with a new label. If bookings, revenue per employee and margin rise together, your thesis gets much stronger.
I'd also value it with flat revenue and 100–200 bps of margin pressure. Thirteen times earnings is only cheap if the earnings are durable; I'd rather have the thesis survive that case than depend on the market returning to an old multiple.

I think the FDE model becoming industry standard across all of the major vendors will hurt ACN

"If ACN can become masters of AI integration and the common pitfalls, which they should - AI could lead to a time of plenty for them."
You should need to understand what you are investing in. Accenture might present some nice glossy adverts and brochures, but they are some of the lowest people in the consulting business, hired by morons. If you don't know that, you need to dig around as to what "lowest people in the consulting business" means. I could say things, but as I can't back them up with evidence, I'm careful not to. But I would never, ever hire them.
If the morons decide that the overrated Palantir are the new wizards, ACN aren't going to capture this market, and might lose more of their customers.

ACN is one of my high conviction plays that hasn’t come good yet (though there are signs that it’s coming around)