AECOM (ACM) Stock Price & How to Invest

AECOM is in the business of engineering expertise, not steel. The company plans, designs, engineers and manages infrastructure programs for governments and large corporations: highways and transit systems, water and wastewater treatment, airports and ports, environmental remediation, flood defenses, and increasingly the power and site work behind data centers. It reports in three segments, Americas (about $2.9 billion of quarterly revenue), International (about $890 million), and a small AECOM Capital investment arm, and employs roughly 51,000 people. Critically, AECOM exited self-perform construction years ago, so it no longer takes fixed-price building risk on its own balance sheet. What is left is a professional services business with very little capital intensity, which is why return on equity has historically run high on about $3.33 billion of debt against $1.02 billion of cash (June 30, 2026).

The investment picture through mid-2026 was a split screen, and it has since darkened. On one side, demand and profitability look excellent: fiscal second quarter 2026 (the quarter ended March 2026, reported May 11) delivered record second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $312 million at a 16.5% margin, adjusted EPS of $1.59 up 27%, total backlog at a record $26.2 billion up 8%, and a design book-to-burn ratio of 1.2, and management raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $5.90 to $6.10. On the other side, cash collapsed in the same quarter: operating cash flow came in at $4 million, down 98% year over year, and adjusted free cash flow swung to negative $27.4 million from positive $178.4 million a year earlier. CFO Gaurav Kapoor attributed it to longer-than-anticipated claim resolution on certain projects, and the 10-Q showed significant claims recorded in contract assets rising to roughly $680 million from about $400 million six months earlier. Shares fell about 12% the next day and have not recovered.

The fiscal third quarter (ended June 2026) was worse. Revenue fell ~14% year over year to ~$3.59 billion, and AECOM reported a net loss of ~$87 million, or about -$0.50 a share against a consensus near $1.46, after a one-off charge on a legacy project, and it lowered its full-year guidance; one fund letter put the share price reaction at about -15%. Analyst consensus for fiscal 2026 EPS now sits near $4.01, well below the $5.90 to $6.10 adjusted range management had guided to in May. At ~$59.12 on October 16, 2026 (market cap ~$7.6 billion), the stock was near its 52-week low of ~$56.39, trading around 9.3 times next year's consensus EPS of ~$6.36 and ~10.9 times EV/EBITDA. Fiscal fourth quarter results are scheduled for November 17, 2026, with consensus at ~$1.59 EPS on ~$4.1 billion of revenue.

The cash flow problem remains live and has been joined by an earnings problem: the fiscal third quarter of 2026 included a one-off charge on a legacy project that produced a ~$87 million net loss and a guidance cut. Earlier, operating cash flow fell 98% in the fiscal second quarter of 2026 and free cash flow went negative, while significant claims recorded in contract assets and other non-current assets grew to roughly $680 million from about $400 million at the September 2025 fiscal year end. Full-year free cash flow guidance of roughly $400 million therefore depends on collecting a large amount in the back half, and if claims resolution keeps slipping, the reported earnings growth will look increasingly disconnected from cash. Several plaintiffs' firms (Pomerantz, Glancy Prongay, Schall, Howard G. Smith, Frank R. Cruz) announced securities-fraud investigations in May and June 2026 over the disclosures around that quarter; these were described as investigations rather than a filed class action as of August 2026, and their status should be re-checked after the third-quarter charge. Government client concentration cuts both ways, exposing the company to budget cycles, appropriations delays and procurement slowdowns, and International net service revenue was already declining 3% in constant currency. Several brokers cut price targets in October 2026 (Truist to $75 from $85, UBS to $103 from $106, RBC to $89 from $90), and fiscal fourth quarter results on November 17, 2026 are the next catalyst in either direction.

12 analysts publish price targets on ACM, averaging $83.92 against a $66.16 price as of November 2026, or +26.8%. The published targets run from $65.00 to $104.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 11 buy, 2 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 0 raises and 12 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full ACM forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on AECOM. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. A record backlog that is growing faster than revenue. Total backlog reached a record $26.2 billion in the fiscal second quarter of 2026, up 8% year over year, with the design business booking 1.2 dollars of new work for every dollar burned. The most optimistic published target, $104.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The cash flow problem remains live and has been joined by an earnings problem: the fiscal third quarter of 2026 included a one-off charge on a legacy project that produced a ~$87 million net loss and a guidance cut. The most pessimistic target, $65.00, is roughly what ACM is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on ACM, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

No. AECOM (ACM) has not split its stock in the last 10 years. That is a statement about the window we check rather than about the company’s entire history, so an older split is possible. It also matters less than it once did: fractional shares mean a high price per share no longer keeps smaller investors out, which removed most of the practical reason to split.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see AECOM's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$15.4 billion (fiscal Q3 2026 down ~14% yoy)
• Fiscal Q3 2026 EPS: ~-$0.50 vs ~$1.46 consensus (legacy-project charge)
• Net income (TTM): ~$373 million (~1.9% margin)
• P/E (trailing / forward): ~20.8x / ~9.3x
• EV / EBITDA: ~10.9x
• Dividend: $1.24 a share, ~2.1% yield
• Market cap: ~$7.6 billion at ~$59 a share

At ~$59 on October 16, 2026, AECOM trades near 9.3 times consensus fiscal 2027 EPS of ~$6.36, a lower multiple than in August, because the market now doubts both cash conversion and near-term earnings after the third-quarter charge and guidance cut. Trailing GAAP figures are weak (net income of ~$373 million on ~$15.4 billion of revenue, a trailing P/E near 21), so the forward and trailing multiples tell very different stories. Analysts' mean target of ~$84 across 12 firms sits well above the share price, which shows how wide the disagreement has become.

Other names that sit close to ACM: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get ACM exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so ACM sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where ACM fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

AECOM is a high-return infrastructure consultancy with a large order book, priced at a steep discount to its peer group because cash has not shown up on schedule and a legacy-project charge has now hit reported earnings and guidance.

Whether ACM is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is ACM a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the ACM stock forecast.

For income investors, whether ACM pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does ACM pay a dividend? And to weigh ACM against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: ACM vs WSPOF and ACM vs STN.