Accenture lowers revenue growth guidance for 2026 at 3%-4%; shares plunge 16%

Shares of Accenture Plc. plunged over 16% on Thursday after the company revised its revenue guidance lower for the FY27. Besides this, the company’s results remained strong with solid revenue growth, profitability and robust cash flows.

Accenture results

The company’s revenue remained strong at $18.7 billion, up 6% YoY from the previous year’s same quarter. The managed services revenue growth remained strong at 8% YoY to $9.39 billion. At the geographic level, the EMEA regions posted the highest growth amongst other regions at 10%. Whereas the Americas and Asia Pacific showed 2% and 7% YoY growth in revenue, respectively.

At the segmental level, financial services, products, Communications & Media showed 6-10% growth in the topline. The operating income and operating profit also posted a resilient performance for the quarter for the company. The operating margin expanded by 20 bps to 17%, and the operating profit jumped 6% to $3.18 billion.

Outlook for Fiscal 2026

The real sentiment spoiler came from the guidance and outlook after the company revised its revenue target for the remaining 2026 at 3%-4%, down from 3%-5%. The downtick in the projections is primarily driven by the West Asia crisis and its impact on the consulting business. The company $100 million impact on the consulting revenues for the period.

Management commentary

Commenting on the results, Accenture Chair and CEO Julie Sweet said, “Accenture delivered a strong third-quarter, with broad-based revenue growth, a 9% increase in EPS, and $8.2 billion returned to shareholders year-to-date. Demand for large-scale reinvention remains strong, with 104 quarterly client bookings of $100 million or more year-to-date, up 13%, and we are seeing more large-scale AI transformation programs while executing our strategy to capture new areas of growth.

Our agreement to acquire a majority stake in Dragos and all of runZero and NetRise, leaders in OT Security, is the type of move that defines our strategy: it is expanding our addressable market, creating a new platform-led growth opportunity, and is positioning Accenture at the centre of one of the most critical cybersecurity challenges our clients face”.

IT Stocks in focus

Following the revised downward guidance, shares of Indian IT companies also witnessed a sharp plunge in their ADRs. The Infosys ADR fell 7%, while Wipro ADR dropped by 5% on Wednesday evening, following the worst fall in Accenture Plc on the New York Stock Exchange.