Accenture Plc.'s revenue rose in the fourth quarter, aided by improved business across its various arms.
The consulting and technology firm’s revenue increased 24% year-on-year to $13.42 billion in the quarter ended August, according to its filings. Analysts had pegged the metric at $13.41 billion. For the full fiscal, revenue rose 14% over the preceding year to $50.5 billion. Accenture follows the September-August fiscal.
Q4 Highlights (YoY)
Revenue from consulting segment rose 29% to $7.3 billion.
Outsourcing business revenue rose 19% to $6.1 billion.
Earnings per share at $2.20 versus $1.99.
Bookings rose 7.1% to $15 billion, against the $15.62-billion estimate.
Free cash flow at $2.2 billion.
Other Highlights
Increased quarterly cash dividend 10% to $0.97 per share.
Approved $3 billion additional share buyback.
The company expects to return at least $6.3 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase.
Accenture expects revenue to range between $13.9 billion and $14.35 billion in the first quarter of FY22. For the full year, its projections for various metrics are as follows:
Revenue growth: 12-15%.
Operating margin: 15.2%-15.4%
Operating cash flow: $8.2-$8.7 billion.
EPS: $9.90 to $10.18.
Here’s what brokerages have to say:
JP Morgan
Reported very strong growth and margins at scale, with continued revenue growth acceleration (in constant currency), stronger than what seasonal trends would imply.
Q1 guidance implies continued growth acceleration at the high end, also driving FY22 guidance of 12-15%, well above street expectations.
Expect a positive stock reaction despite the stock trading at its all-time high multiple of 35x NTM earnings.
Revenue growth was strong across both outsourcing and consulting. Book-to-bill in both businesses stayed above 1.1 times+, suggesting continued strong demand.
UBS
Reported revenue 70 bps above our $13.3 billion estimate and slightly below the high-end of management's guidance of $13.1 billion-$13.5 billion.
New bookings increased just 7.4% year-on-year, a material deceleration from prior quarters post-pandemic growth rates.
Roughly in line Q4 revenue and EPS offset by a modestly better FY22 EPS outlook relative to consensus
Emkay Global Financial Services
Accenture continues to gain market share and is seeing strong, broad-based demand across industries, services and geographic markets, resulting in strong overall operating performance and strong order booking.
The company saw very strong double-digit growth in local currency in all four of its strategy priorities—cloud, interactive, industry X and security—and in all three service lines of strategy & consulting, technology and operations during the quarter.
Growth in Q4 was driven by products, communication, media and technology, financial and health and public services.
Robust Q4 performance and strong FY22 revenue growth guidance on 12-15% in local currency reflect strong demand environment.
A broad-based demand uptick and healthy order booking in the outsourcing business augurs well for Indian IT peers.
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