Accenture plc (ACN) Earns Buy Rating as Strong Q1 Results and GenAI Growth Drive Optimism

We recently compiled a list of the 10 AI News Dominating Wall Street Today. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) stands against the other AI stocks that are dominating Wall Street.

The Generative AI market, a crucial branch of artificial intelligence, is revolutionizing entire industries today. According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, the Gen-AI market was valued at USD 20.21 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach USD 440 billion by 2032. This signifies an impressive CAGR of 41.31% over the forecast period from 2024 to 2032.

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According to the report, the North American region leads the Generative AI market with a 34% share in 2023. Its robust technology ecosystem, skilled workforce, and increasing demand for AI-powered content are responsible for the leading market share. The European region has also been experiencing growth, driven by government funding, startup innovation, and region-specific applications.

Back in 2022, the generative AI market was dominated by established players only. These established players accounted for 88% of the market share, whereas start-ups grasped only 12%. This is now changing, with more players entering the market with each passing year.

Highlighting advancements in artificial intelligence, Sam Altman, CEO of AI Company OpenAI states how the next innovations in AI are going to be more disruptive than people can imagine. Speaking at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York City, he stated that the industry may begin to see examples of artificial general intelligence (AGI), which refers to the hypothetical intelligence of a machine similar to that of a human, as soon as 2025.

“I think it’s possible… in 2025 we will have systems that we look at… and people will say, ‘Wow, that changes what I expected”

-Sam Altman

Altman noted that at first, the introduction of AGI, and the level of intelligence beyond it, is going to have minimal effect. However, it will later “be more intense than people think”.  In its latest advancements in AI, OpenAI has now begun testing new reasoning AI models, o3 and o3 mini.

This demonstrates a sign of growing competition with rivals such as Google to create smarter models proficient at solving complex problems. According to Altman, OpenAI plans to launch the o3 mini by the end of January, and the full o3 after that. The enhanced models aim to outperform existing ones, driving new investments and user growth.

The new o3 and o3 mini models are currently undergoing internal safety testing, and are anticipated to be more powerful than the o1 models. OpenAI has ignited a competitive AI arms race, pushing tech companies worldwide to accelerate the development of cutting-edge AI technologies.

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.

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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 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: 60

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) offers strategy and consulting services. On December 20, Bank of America Securities analyst Jason Kupferberg maintained their bullish stance on Accenture plc, giving a Buy rating. The recent financial performance and outlook have led to the rating. The company’s first-quarter fiscal results exceeded expectations as it reported first-quarter revenue of $17.7 billion and beat analysts’ estimates of $17.12 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. It also demonstrated rapid growth in GenAI bookings, landing first-quarter bookings of $18.7 billion, an increase of 1% from the year-ago period.

Moreover, even though a potential second-half deceleration is expected, the company’s guidance suggests it may hit the high end of its full-year revenue outlook. This is supported by operating margin expansion and growth in key sectors like Financial Services and Health/Public Services, particularly in the Americas. All of these factors demonstrate Accenture’s promising growth trajectory and justify the buy rating.

Overall ACN ranks 6th on our list of the AI stocks dominating Wall Street today. 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 timeframe. 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.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.