Accenture Stock Pops On Q1 Earnings Beat Driven By Demand For AI-Powered Tools: Retail Celebrates Upbeat Guidance

Accenture Plc. stock was up over 7% in morning trade on Thursday after the IT services giant reported an earnings beat and upbeat guidance. 

Accenture’s optimistic quarterly results also lifted market sentiment around U.S.-listed shares of Wipro and Infosys, higher by over 2% and 3%, respectively.

The Ireland-based company reported earnings of $3.60 per share, above Wall Street’s expectations of $3.42 per share.

Revenue for the first quarter stood at $17.7 billion, beating an analyst estimate of $17.5 billion, according to Stocktwits data. This marks a 9% increase in revenue year-over-year (YoY).

"First quarter new bookings were $18.7 billion, including 30 quarterly client bookings of more than $100 million," CEO Julie Sweet said in a statement. 

Accenture’s gains were driven by rising demand for AI-powered tools, according to the company. Its GenAI business clocked in new bookings worth $1.2 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. 

Segment-wise, product revenue rose to $5.43 billion, a 12% YoY increase, while the health and public service segment reported $3.81 billion in revenue, up 13%.

Accenture sees second-quarter revenue growing in the range of $16.2 billion to 16.8 billion.

For the full year, the IT firm raised its revenue forecast and now expects it to grow between 4% to 7%, compared to the earlier anticipated growth of 3% to 6%. 

It also expects operating cash flow to be in the range of $9.4 billion to $10.1 billion for fiscal 2025.

Accenture Sentiment and Message Volume on Dec 19 as of 11:25 a.m. ET | Source: Stocktwits

Retail sentiment around the IT major remained ‘extremely bullish’, with message volumes at ‘extremely high’ levels. 

Given the cyclical nature of the stock, one user recommended that investors should sell every pop.

Today’s rally restores Accenture’s year-to-date performance into positive territory.

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