Overview
- Accenture reported fiscal Q3 revenue of $18.7 billion and adjusted EPS of $3.80 but on Thursday narrowed its full‑year revenue growth guidance to 3–4% from 3–5%, focussing investor attention on the outlook rather than the quarterly beat.
- Management said new bookings fell to $19.3 billion and outsourcing bookings dropped about 15% year‑over‑year, and it attributed roughly $100 million of Q3 revenue loss and a roughly $400 million pipeline impact to the Middle East conflict.
- Investors sold aggressively: Accenture shares plunged about 18% intraday after the update, and global IT and consulting peers fell, with India’s Nifty IT index sliding about 5–6% and roughly Rs 1.6–2 lakh crore of sector market value wiped out.
- To counter slowing organic demand, Accenture announced about $4.18 billion of cybersecurity acquisitions and flagged a stepped‑up M&A plan of up to roughly $9 billion to build AI, cloud and security capabilities.
- Analysts warned the guidance cut could trigger earnings downgrades and valuation pressure for Indian and global IT firms, and they said markets will now watch bookings, outsourcing trends and whether AI expands total tech spending or merely reallocates it.