IT services provider Accenture ACN-N projected annual revenue growth largely above estimates on Thursday, as growing adoption of artificial intelligence offsets sluggish growth in enterprise spending, sending its shares up 3 per cent in premarket trading.
Generative AI technologies used to automate certain operations are helping companies boost productivity and save costs.
Accenture has also been a go-to consultant and outsourcing service provider for businesses migrating their operations to the cloud, partially shielding the company from inflation-triggered IT budget cuts.
The company expects annual revenue to grow between 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent, compared with analysts’ expectations of 1.6 per cent, according to LSEG data. It had earlier expected growth between 1 per cent and 3 per cent.
Revenue for the quarter ended May 31 stood at $16.47-billion, compared with estimates of $16.53-billion.
Its reported third-quarter profit of $1.93-billion, compared with $2.01-billion a year earlier.
Quarterly new bookings, a metric indicating value of customer contracts with a spending commitment, was $21.06-billion, compared with $17.25-billion a year ago. Accenture reported new bookings of $21.58-billion in the prior three-month period.