FILE PHOTO: Figurines with computers and smartphones are seen in front of Accenture logo in this illustration taken, February 19, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
(Reuters) -Accenture reported a second straight drop in quarterly new bookings on Friday and unveiled an organizational revamp to bolster its AI consulting services, as a cutback in U.S. government spending and economic uncertainty pressure growth.
The bookings decline overshadowed the consulting giant's better-than-expected quarterly revenue and an increase in its annual forecasts, sending its shares down more than 6%.
Consulting and IT firms are under pressure as U.S. tariffs and accompanying economic uncertainty force companies to rethink their spending plans, while the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts have led to contract cancellations and delays.
CFO Angie Park said slower government spending will have an impact of 2% on its fiscal fourth-quarter and annual revenue, after recording an "immaterial" hit in the last quarter.
Bookings - which represent future revenue secured through contracts - fell 6% to $19.70 billion in the third quarter, below the Visible Alpha estimate of $21.54 billion and worse than the 3% decline in the previous quarter.
Accenture said 30 clients recorded quarterly bookings of greater than $100 million, compared with 32 in the previous quarter. Generative AI bookings totaled about $1.5 billion.
AJ Bell analyst Dan Coatsworth said Accenture had already rattled investors in March with warnings on U.S. government spending, and the latest bookings decline adds to concerns that securing new business was also getting harder.
"Earnings grew, but the market is more focused on what's ahead, not what's just happened."
To navigate the uncertainty, Accenture plans to focus on AI consulting with the creation of a new business unit called reinvention services, which would combine its AI offerings and be led by Manish Sharma, the head of its Americas business.
Accenture posted third-quarter revenue of $17.7 billion, beating analysts' average estimate of $17.30 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. That growth was powered by higher spending by its clients in the financial services industry.
Profit per share of $3.49 also beat estimates of $3.32.
Accenture now expects annual revenue growth of 6% to 7%, compared with its earlier expectation of 5% to 7%.
(Reporting by Meghana Khare and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
