Accenture continues gains after FQ1 beats, upside Q2 revenue forecast and raised full-year view
- Accenture (NYSE:ACN +8.4%) remains strongly in the green after the company's early morning fiscal Q1 report topped estimates and raised the full-year guidance.
- "I am pleased that we delivered first-quarter revenues above our expectations, with broad-based improvement across industries and geographic markets, reflecting the relevance of our services, the strength of our growth strategy and the advantages of our scale in digital, cloud and security. New bookings, profitability and free cash flow were all very strong, and we again returned substantial cash to shareholders while continuing to invest in our business and our people," says Accenture CEO Julie Sweet.
- Consulting revenues were down 1% Y/Y in U.S. dollars to $6.13B, which included a reduction of about 3 percentage points attributed to a revenue decline from reimbursable travel costs.
- Revenue by industry group was up on the year across the board with the exception of Resources, which dipped 4% Y/Y to $1.66B.
- Outsourcing sales improved 9% on the year to $5.43B.
- New bookings were up 25% to $12.9B with Consulting representing a slightly higher portion of the mix than Outsourcing at $6.6B and $6.3B, respectively.
- Gross margin was up one percentage point to 33.1%. Operating margin increased from 15.6% to 16.1%.
- Operating cash flow totaled $1.6B with FCF of $1.51B.
- For fiscal Q2, ACN guides for $11.55-11.95B in revenue versus the $11.39B consensus.
- For the year, Accenture forecasts revenue growth of 4-6% in local currency (prior: 2-5% growth), adjusted EPS of $8.02-8.25 (prior: $7.80-8.10, consensus: $8.03) and FCF of $6-6.5B (prior: $5.7-6.2B).
- Press release.
- Previously: Accenture EPS beats by $0.12, beats on revenue, raises FY2021 outlook (Dec. 17 2020)
- Previously: Accenture declares $0.88 dividend (Dec. 17 2020)