Accenture
stock fell Thursday after the management consultant and tech company reported revenue that missed Wall Street estimates and provided earnings guidance below consensus.
Accenture
(ticker: ACN) posted fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings of $2.71 a share on revenue of $15.99 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting earnings of $2.65 a share on revenue of $16.07 billion. In the fourth quarter last year, the company reported earnings of $2.60 a share on revenue of $15.42 billion.
Accenture
also said new bookings for the quarter were $16.6 billion, a decrease of 10% from the same period last year.
The company expects fiscal 2024 adjusted earnings of between $11.97 to $12.32 a share. That’s below the FactSet consensus of $12.38 a share.
Accenture also posted fiscal 2023 revenue of $64.1 billion. The company expects revenue growth for fiscal 2024 to be between 2% to 5%, which would be less than Wall Street estimates of $67.66 billion.
Evercore ISI analyst David Togut cut his price target on the stock to $333 from $346 but maintained his Outperform rating. Togut wrote in a research note Thursday that “deteriorating discretionary spending softened bookings, increasing headwinds to FY24E revenue growth.”
William Blair analyst Maggie Nolan also maintained her Outperform rating on the stock without a price target.
“Demand for new small deals remains weak, primarily impacting strategy and consulting and systems integration work,” Nolan wrote in a research note. “However, we are encouraged that Accenture continues to capture demand for large transformational deals, as evidenced by 106 clients in fiscal 2023 with quarterly bookings greater than $100 million.”
Chief Executive Julie Sweet said in a news release that she was “extremely proud” of the company’s financial performance. She also added that “our clients’ generative AI bookings of $300 million in the last six months position us at the heart of the beginning of AI-fueled reinvention.”
William Blair’s Nolan wrote that she was “impressed” with gen AI sales.
Shares of Accenture fell 5% Thursday to $298.80 and were on pace for their largest percentage decrease since December 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The stock was the second-worst performer in the
S&P 500
Thursday. Including Thursday’s performance, the stock has risen 12% this year.
Write to Angela Palumbo at [email protected]
Read the full article here