UPDATE: Societe Generale Downgrades Accenture on Struggling Consulting and Outsourcing Growth

In a report published Friday, Societe Generale analyst Richard Nguyen downgraded Accenture (NYSE: ACN) from Hold to Sell and lowered its price target from $74 to $70.

In the report, Societe Generale cited 3 primary reasons for the downgrade, “1) Consulting still struggling to return to growth: We now expect consulting to return to growth by calendar Q2 14 at the earliest. We see no easing of recent unhelpful trends, at least in Europe… 2) Decelerating outsourcing despite buoyant BPO clients are also slowing spending on existing programs… 3) Impact on SGe forecasts: for FY13 we lower by 3% our revenue estimates (already below consensus) and adj. EPS by 2% from $4.27 to $4.18.”

Accenture closed Thursday at $80.22.