Global consulting giant Accenture saw its shares spike sharply by 20% in pre-market trade to reach $220 on the NYSE, as investors cheered the company’s better-than-expected performance in the fiscal fourth quarter and upbeat outlook.
The company reported fourth-quarter GAAP earnings of $3.29 per share, beating analysts’ estimate by 11 cents. Revenue rose 6.3% year over year to $18.7 billion, exceeding expectations by about $660 million.
Consulting revenue totalled $9.28 billion in the fourth quarter, above analysts’ expectations, while revenue from its communications, media and technology segment jumped 11% to $3.26 billion during the quarter, the Dublin-headquartered firm said in a statement on Thursday.
Fourth-quarter bookings increased 4% year over year to $22.2 billion, pointing to resilient client spending on IT projects.
Accenture gives upbeat outlook for fiscal 2027
For fiscal year 2027, Accenture expects revenue growth of 3% to 6% in local currency. It forecasts GAAP diluted earnings per share of $14.39 to $14.81, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $14.67.
The forecast suggests Accenture’s consulting business has held up despite macroeconomic uncertainty and the threat of disruption from AI that has battered its stock. In July, rival Cognizant lifted its annual profit forecast after recording strong growth in its financial services business.
The bellwether for the information technology services sector is among the first to announce its quarterly performance, as the industry’s outsourcing model, which relies on thousands of low-cost offshore workers, comes under increasing investor scrutiny amid disruption wrought by the advent of artificial intelligence.
Rivals, including Capgemini SE and Infosys Ltd., have been hit by a sharp sell-off this year amid concerns surrounding their labour-arbitrage model.
Accenture Chair and CEO Julie Sweet said, “We exceeded our fourth-quarter revenue guidance range and capped off another year of broad-based growth across our business, grew adjusted EPS 8%, returned a record $11.5 billion to shareholders and reached a new high of 141 quarterly client bookings of $100 million or more.”
During the reported quarter, Accenture partnered with Anthropic to test the safety of its advanced AI models. Accenture will deploy a team of embedded evaluators to work with Anthropic’s internal teams and safety partners to evaluate and red-team models, conduct alignment assessments and test model safeguards.
Anthropic and Accenture each expect to invest at least $1 billion over the next five years in the effort.
After its third-quarter earnings disappointed investors, Accenture urged its staff to sell hard to close out the financial year and gave them the option of rolling over vacation days into 2027 in a bid to meet its goals.
The company said it expects to return at least $9.5 billion in cash to shareholders in its 2027 fiscal year.
(With inputs from Bloomberg and Reuters)
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