Accenture's strong annual forecast sparks rally in IT consulting stocks
Accenture's strong annual forecast sparks rally in IT consulting stocks
Thu, October 1, 2026 at 3:06 PM UTC
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Oct 1 (Reuters) - Accenture's shares were set for their best day ever after forecasting annual revenue growth above estimates on Thursday, lifting the IT consulting sector beaten down by worries over AI disruption.
The outlook signaled that demand for traditional consulting has remained resilient despite economic uncertainty, as companies turn to external parties for tasks including AI adoption and automation.
The consulting firm's shares rose more than 22%, marking their biggest single-day percentage gain on record.
Investors welcomed the sign of resilient IT spending, sending shares of peers higher. Cognizant rose about 8% and IBM about 3%.
US-listed shares of Indian rivals Wipro and Infosys also rose between 6% and 7%.
Accenture expects annual revenue to grow between 3% and 6% in fiscal 2027, the midpoint of which is above analysts' average estimate of a 3.9% growth, according to data compiled by LSEG.
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Analysts at JPMorgan said the quarter marked the Dublin, Ireland-based company's strongest revenue outperformance relative to its guidance since May 2025, and that they expect it to keep its focus on acquisitions this year.
"We currently expect to deploy another approximately $5 billion in acquisitions in fiscal '27 based on the opportunities we see today to accelerate our growth strategy," Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said on a post-earnings call.
In June, Accenture had announced three cybersecurity deals totaling $4.18 billion, including a majority investment in Dragos.
Accenture's fourth-quarter bookings rose 4% to $22.17 billion. Consulting revenue in the period grew 7% to $9.28 billion, helping lift total sales to $18.68 billion, beating estimates of $18.03 billion.
In September, Accenture partnered with IPO-bound Anthropic to independently evaluate its frontier AI models, with the companies committing at least $1 billion each over five years to expand AI safety and testing capabilities.
(Reporting by Prathik Jayaprakash in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)
Source: “AOL Money”
