Accenture rises after Q1 beat as AI bookings continue to grow, raises revenue outlook

Accenture’s (NYSE:ACN) stock rose about 6% premarket on Thursday after fiscal first quarter results beat expectations and raised its revenue growth outlook for fiscal 2025.

However, the revenue growth outlook was slightly below estimates.

For the fiscal first quarter ended Nov. 30, revenue climbed 9% (in U.S. dollar terms) year-on-year to $ $17.7B, surpassing analysts’ estimates.

“We delivered broad-based revenue growth across both consulting and managed services, and across each market and industry group, gaining market share. First quarter new bookings were $18.7 billion, including 30 quarterly client bookings of more than $100 million, and we continued to lead in helping our clients realize value with generative AI, with new bookings of $1.2 billion,” said Accenture’s Chair and CEO Julie Sweet.

Generative AI new bookings for the fiscal fourth quarter, ended Aug. 31, were $1B.

The Irish company’s Consulting revenues in the first quarter grew 7% (in U.S. dollars) year-over-year to $$9.05B, while Managed Services revenues jumped 11% (in U.S. dollars) to $$8.64B.

However, new bookings for the first quarter rose only 1% (in U.S. dollars) year-over-year to $18.70B.

The company’s total cash balance at Nov. 30 was $8.3B compared to $5B at Aug. 31, 2024.

Dividend: Accenture declared a $1.48 quarterly dividend, the same as the previous quarter’s amount. The record date is Jan. 16, 2025 and the dividend is payable on Feb. 14, 2025.

Stock Buyback: During the first quarter, Accenture bought back or redeemed 2.5M shares, including about 2.2M shares repurchased in the open market, for a total of $$898M. Accenture’s total remaining share repurchase authority at Nov. 30, was around $5.9B.

Outlook:

Second quarter fiscal 2025: Accenture expects revenues for the second quarter to be in the range of $16.2B to $16.8B (midpoint at $16.5B), below consensus estimate of $16.62B.

Fiscal year 2025: The company raises revenue growth to be in the range of 4% to 7% (midpoint at 5%) in local currency, compared to 3% to 6% previously, consensus revenue growth is 5.61%.

Accenture now expects GAAP diluted EPS for fiscal 2025 to be in the range of $12.43 to $12.79 (midpoint $12.61%) compared to $12.55 to $12.91 previously.

The company said it continues to expect to return at least $8.3B in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

Peers, Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) rose about 1%, while EPAM Systems (EPAM) and Infosys (INFY) were largely flat premarket on Thursday.