Accenture shares surge after record bookings and Q4 earnings beat
Accenture beat fourth-quarter expectations with revenue of $18.7bn and record bookings, sending shares up as much as 18% in premarket trading.
Accenture shares jumped as much as 18% in premarket trading on Thursday after the consulting giant reported fiscal fourth-quarter results that beat expectations and record bookings, making it the top gainer in the S&P 500 ahead of the market open and putting the stock on track for a seven-month high (Stocktwits).
Revenue for the quarter ended 31 August came in at $18.7bn, up 6% in US dollars and 7% in local currency, above the $18.04bn consensus estimate (NDTV Profit). GAAP diluted earnings per share rose 46% to $3.29, ahead of the $3.18 expected. New bookings totalled $22.2bn in the quarter, up 4%, and hit a full-year record of $84.5bn. Fourth-quarter GAAP operating margin rose 370 basis points to 15.3% (Business Wire).
Chief executive Julie Sweet said the company “exceeded our fourth-quarter revenue guidance range” and reached “a new high of 141 quarterly client bookings of $100 million or more”. Full-year revenue was $74.2bn, up 6%, and the firm returned a record $11.5bn to shareholders, up 38%.
For fiscal 2027, Accenture forecast revenue growth of 3% to 6% in local currency and GAAP diluted EPS of $14.39 to $14.81. The rally follows a difficult year for the stock, which was down roughly a third entering Thursday amid investor worries that generative AI could disrupt traditional consulting demand — concerns that prompted Guggenheim to downgrade the stock to ‘Neutral’ last month (Investor’s Business Daily).
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