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Accenture (ACN) to Benefit From T.A. Cook Buyout: Here's How

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Accenture plc (ACN - Free Report) yesterday announced that it has completed the acquisition of T.A. Cook, a consultancy specialized in asset performance management and capital projects for clients in capital-intensive industries and infrastructure. Financial terms of the deal have been kept under wraps.

Founded in 1994, T.A. Cook offers services in data-driven maintenance, operations and asset life cycle management, including a proprietary as-a-service reliability solution. The company is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and has additional offices in Canada, Hong Kong and the United States.

So far this year, shares of Accenture have gained 41% compared with 45.2% growth of the industry it belongs to and 25.9% rise of the Zacks S&P 500 composite.

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How Will Accenture Benefit?

The buyout marks the addition of 130 consultants, engineers, and development coaches from T.A. Cook into Accenture’s Industry X group. This should strengthen Accenture’s Industry X group’s services for digitizing clients’ engineering functions, asset performance management, factory floors, project management office services and plant operations.

The deal is expected to boost Accenture’s potential in enhancing asset performance, raising safety, and lessening environmental impact and expenses in the chemicals, life sciences, metals and mining, as well as oil and gas industries.

Nigel Stacey, global lead at Accenture Industry X, stated, "With T.A. Cook, we continue to grow our intelligent asset management capabilities that help clients automate processes, build predictive maintenance capabilities, reduce waste, increase utilization and, ultimately, redefine how they operate plants and factories for sustainable growth."

Christina Raab, market unit lead for Accenture in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Russia, added, "T.A. Cook’s digital track record, expertise and highly skilled team will enhance the solutions and capabilities that our clients require to transform their operations and boost growth."

Further, T.A. Cook complements Accenture’s prior initiatives in strengthening its Industry X capabilities globally. Since 2017, the tech giant has completed 26 acquisitions to boost its Industry X capabilities. To name a few, latest acquisitions include Advoco and umlaut in October 2021, Electro 80 (Australia) on May 3, Pollux (Brazil) on Apr 8, Myrtle (United States) on Oct 9, 2020 and SALT Solutions (Germany) on Oct 30, 2020.

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

Accenture currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Avis Budget (CAR - Free Report) , Automatic Data Processing (ADP - Free Report) and FactSet Research Systems (FDS - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Avis Budget has an expected earnings growth rate of around 395.65% for the current year. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 76.9%, on average.

Avis Budget’s shares have surged 634.4% so far this year. The company has a long-term earnings growth of 27.5%.

Automatic Data Processing has an expected earnings growth rate of around 12.3% for the current fiscal year. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 9.7%, on average.

Automatic Data Processing’s shares have surged 32.3% so far this year. The company has a long-term earnings growth of 12%.

Genpact has an expected earnings growth rate of around 13.7% for the current fiscal year. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 15.1%, on average.

Genpact’s shares have surged 23.7% so far this year. The company has a long-term earnings growth of 14.8%.

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