We recently compiled a list of the 10 AI Stocks You Need to Watch: News & Ratings. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) stands against the other AI stocks.
Nvidia’s annual software developer conference, GTC, is in full swing. With its latest announcements, the company is doing all it can to assure investors of its dominance in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence industry. On Tuesday, CEO Jensen Huang delivered a keynote address in front of a packed hockey stadium in San Jose, California.
He noted how he believes that humanoid robots are less than five years away from wide use in manufacturing facilities. In this regard, he unveiled software tools that would reportedly help humanoid robots navigate the world more easily. Huang talked about humanoid robots when asked what signs would show that AI had become ubiquitous.
Huang said it may be “when, literally, humanoid robots are wandering around, which is not five years away. This is not five-years-away problem, this is a few-years-away problem.”
READ ALSO: 10 High-Flying AI Stocks to Watch Today and 10 AI Stocks to Keep on Your Radar
Huang asserted that the manufacturing industry is probably going to be the first to adopt humanoid robots. This is because it has well-defined tasks that robots can easily handle in a controlled environment.
“I think it ought to go to factories first. And the reason for that is because the domain is much more guard-railed, and the use case is much more specific. The value of it is very, very easy to determine. The going rate for renting a human robot is probably $100,000 and I think it’s pretty good economics.”
The chipmaker’s CEO reportedly has big plans for the AI data center industry too. Debuting silicon photonics networking systems, Huang noted that their Spectrum-X and Quantum-X photonics can join hundreds and even thousands of GPUs, enabling data center companies to deploy up to 1 million GPU clusters.
Huang further noted how those million cluster data centers will be connected to other million-dollar data centers nearby to form massive data center facilities.
“Over the next several years, we’re going to be building giant AI factories. Not normal AI factories … ones you see from space.”
The GTC keynote also talked about the company’s latest advancements, from Spectrum-X and Quantum-X photonics to Blackwell Ultra and Vera Rubin Superchips, which are going to help customers operate powerful AI systems to drive better revenue opportunities.
“AI factories are directly related to revenue, and if the throughput is not good, your revenue is hurt. If you don’t have enough capacity, your revenue is hurt. If you’re not producing something of great value … your revenue is hurt.”
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A team of data experts gathered around a computer monitor analyzing customer data.
Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 79
Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) offers strategy and consulting services. On March 17, Baird analyst David Koning upgraded the stock from Neutral to “Outperform” with a price target of $390.00. Koning is bullish on Accenture’s Managed Services, representing approximately 50% of the company’s $66.4 billion annual revenue. According to the analyst, it is expected to maintain robust demand. The analysts noted that Accenture’s stock has been weak in the past few years due to sluggish IT demand and Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, fears.
However, second-quarter fiscal 2025 can help it “beat” mildly. The company’s strong free cash flow exceeding $9 billion favor is also anticipated to help it return to favor, ultimately allowing it to benefit from generative AI, or GenAI, demand. Analysts led by Koning anticipate GenAI as a key factor contributing to the company’s return to favor in the market, with companies likely to turn to Accenture to develop/implement GenAI solutions (Consulting) and run those (ManagedServices).
Overall, ACN ranks 7th on our list of AI Stocks you need to watch. While we acknowledge the potential of ACN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ACN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
