Accenture Plc (ACN - Free Report) is set to report second-quarter fiscal 2017 results on Mar 23. Last quarter, the company posted a positive earnings surprise of 6.04%. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors to Consider

Accenture delivered mixed first-quarter fiscal 2017 results, wherein the bottom line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate but the top line missed the same. Moreover, the company lowered its fiscal 2017 earnings outlook and provided a dismal second-quarter revenue guidance. However, both revenues and earnings increased on a year-over-year basis, reflecting increased focus on the Consulting and Outsourcing business, new bookings and continuous return of shareholders’ value.

Recently, Accenture completed the acquisition of Seabury Group, a strategy consulting firm with primarily focus on the aviation industry. We believe that the buyout will expand Accenture’s capabilities in providing end-to-end strategy consulting services to the airline companies. It will also help the company in gaining more market share, thereby boosting its top-line performance, going forward.

Accenture’s solid performance across insurance, banking and health care segments reflects strong demand for its services, which will boost its long-term growth.

However, increasing competition from Cognizant Technology Solutions and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM - Free Report) , a strained spending environment and Accenture’s broad European exposure may tamper growth to some extent.

Accenture PLC Price and EPS Surprise

Accenture PLC Price and EPS Surprise | Accenture PLC Quote

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Accenture will beat earnings estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: Both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $1.30 per share. Hence, the difference is 0.00%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Although Accenture’s Zacks Rank #3 increases the predictive power of ESP, its 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are a couple of stocks that you may consider, as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat:

Constellation Brands, Inc. (STZ - Free Report) , with an Earnings ESP of +0.73% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

FedEx Corp. (STZFDX - Free Report) , with an Earnings ESP of +3.40% and a Zacks Rank #3.