By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Accenture stock (NYSE:ACN) climbed 10% Thursday after the IT consulting giant substantially raised its forecast for the year following an estimate-beating quarter.
The company now expects full-year revenue growth of 19% to 22% in local currency and profit per share of $10.46 at center of the guidance range, a big jump from the 12% to 15% revenue growth and $10.04 EPS it guided for the year in September.
The revised guidance came in after the company recorded new bookings of an unprecedented $16.8 billion, with $9.4 billion coming from consulting and $7.4 billion from outsourcing, an outcome of more clients seeking its cloud and security services in the pandemic-struck world.
The company added 50,000 people to its workforce during the quarter. North America revenue rose 26% while Europe was up 29%.
Revenue in the first quarter was around $15 billion, a gain of 27%. Adjusted profit per share was $2.78, up 20%. Operating margin rose 20 basis points to 16.3%. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage.
Accenture expects current-quarter revenue to come in between $14.30 billion and $14.75 billion.