Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) shares jumped over 23% to $226.05 in Thursday pre-market trading after the company topped fiscal fourth-quarter revenue expectations and issued a fiscal 2027 growth outlook of 3% to 6% in local currency.
The rally lifted the shares above price targets maintained by two analysts after the results. Jefferies reiterated a Hold rating with a $190 target, while TD Cowen maintained its Hold rating and $173 target. Both targets were below the $216.34 pre-market price. Accenture had closed Wednesday’s regular session at $183.37, up 3.53%.
Jefferies, TD Cowen Focus on Organic Growth and M&A Contribution
Jefferies’ post-earnings view centered on the underlying organic growth implied by Accenture’s fiscal 2027 outlook. Accenture guided to total local-currency revenue growth of 3% to 6%, while Chief Financial Officer Angie Park said acquisitions are expected to contribute 2.5 percentage points to fiscal 2027 growth. Based on that contribution, Jefferies treated the outlook as implying roughly 0.5% to 3.5% organic growth and noted that the implied range was about 50 basis points above expectations.
Accenture did not provide a separate organic-growth range.
TD Cowen, meanwhile, highlighted the acquisition contribution embedded in the outlook. The firm described the outlook as including roughly 2 to 2.5 percentage points from M&A and said the fourth-quarter results exceeded both its estimates and more cautious expectations heading into the report.
On the broader demand backdrop, management said discretionary spending did not materially change during the fourth quarter. For fiscal 2027, the upper end of the revenue range assumes discretionary spending remains stable or improves slightly, while the lower end allows for deterioration.
Q4 Revenue, EPS and Bookings Support the Earnings Rally
The earnings report behind Thursday’s share-price move showed fourth-quarter revenue of $18.68 billion, up 6% in U.S. dollars and 7% in local currency. The result exceeded Accenture’s own $17.75 billion to $18.40 billion guidance range and the $18.03 billion analyst average cited by Reuters.
Diluted earnings per share were $3.29, up 46% from $2.25 a year earlier and 9% compared with the prior-year adjusted figure of $3.03. New bookings reached $22.17 billion, rising 4% in U.S. dollars and 5% in local currency. Consulting bookings were $9.40 billion, and managed-services bookings were $12.77 billion.
Consulting revenue rose 6% to $9.28 billion, while managed-services revenue increased 7% to $9.40 billion. For fiscal 2027, Accenture expects diluted EPS of $14.39 to $14.81, an operating margin of 15.9% to 16.1%, and free cash flow of $11.0 billion to $11.8 billion.
Separately, Accenture Tokenized Stock (Ondo), or ACNon, was trading at $222.85, up 21.24% over the previous 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. ACNon is part of the broader tokenized stocks market and is designed to provide economic exposure similar to Accenture shares while remaining separate from the NYSE-listed ACN security.