Accenture Boosts Nordics Presence With Hjaltelin Stahl Buyout

Accenture plc ACN recently announced that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Copenhagen-based creative agency Hjaltelin Stahl. The financial terms have been kept under wraps.

Founded in 2003, Hjaltelin Stahl is one of the leading and most awarded creative agencies in Denmark. It offers cross-channel branding campaigns and digital experiences for top brands like Arla, COOP, IKEA, Suzuki and Telia.

The agency, with its 150 employees who specialize in advertising, branding, film production, social and marketing automation, is now part of Accenture Interactive and continues to operate under the Hjaltelin Stahl brand and management.

We observe that shares of Accenture have gained 25% year to date, compared with 21.9% rise of the industry it belongs and 13.1% increase of the Zacks S&P 500 composite.

Eyes Nordics Region

The acquisition reflects a strategic business move on Accenture’s part to strengthen its presence in the Nordics.

Accenture’s prior initiatives in this regard were the acquisition of Kaplan, a Stockholm-based provider of data-driven customer relationship management services in November 2018; the business and certain assets of Swedish creative agency — The World Loves in October 2018 and the appointment of Adam Kerj as chief creative officer for the Nordic region in August 2018.

“With the addition of Hjaltelin Stahl to Accenture Interactive we significantly strengthen our ability to design, build and run the best customer experiences for our clients in Denmark and beyond,” stated Christian Dam, managing director of Accenture Interactive, Denmark.

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

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

A few better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Insperity NSP, Automatic Data Processing ADP and FLEETCOR FLT. While Insperity sports a Zacks Rank #1, FLEETCOR and Automatic Data Processing carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Long-term expected EPS (three to five years) growth rate for Insperity, Automatic Data Processing and FLEETCOR and is 18%, 13% and16.5%, respectively.

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