Nasdaq-listed IT services major Accenture on Thursday reported its fiscal second quarter earnings report with revenue at $16.7 billion, posting a growth of 5 per cent in US dollar terms and 8.5 per cent in local currency. This was in line with the company’s guided range of $16.2 billion to $16.8 billion. “The foreign-exchange impact for the quarter was approximately negative 3.0 per cent, compared with the negative 2.5 per cent assumption provided in the company’s first-quarter earnings release, it said in a regulatory filing.
GAAP operating margin (operating income as a percentage of revenues) for the quarter was 13.5 per cent, compared to GAAP operating margin of 13.0 per cent, and adjusted operating margin of 13.7 per cent for the second quarter of fiscal 2024.
Accenture operates on a September-August fiscal calendar.
While the Americas region contributed to the largest share of the total revenue, amounting to $8.55 billion, posting a growth of 9 per cent YoY, the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) generated revenue of $5.80 billion, up 4 per cent on-year. The Asia-Pacific region, meanwhile, posted revenue of $2.30 billion, down 3 per cent (in US dollar terms).
Julie Sweet, Accenture Chair and CEO, said, “Our second quarter results demonstrate that we continue to deliver on our strategy to lead reinvention for our clients and return to strong growth in FY25, with broad-based growth across markets, industries, and the types of work our clients seek from us. Our continued growth is made possible by the extraordinary work of our more than 800,000 people around the world who focus on delivering value to our clients every day.”
Bookings update
Accenture said that the new bookings for the second quarter of fiscal 2025 stood at $20.91 billion, down 3 per cent YoY in US dollar terms and flat in local currency. While the consulting new bookings were at $10.47 billion, managed services new bookings came in at $10.44 billion. “The trust and confidence in our unique strengths and capabilities is reflected in 32 clients with quarterly bookings greater than $100 million and we are very pleased to have another milestone quarter in Gen AI with $1.4 billion in new bookings,” Julie Sweet said.
FY25 outlook
Accenture narrowed its full-year revenue growth outlook to 5-7 per cent in local currency and continues to expect foreign exchange impact of approximately negative 0.5 per cent. The IT major has updated its operating margin outlook to 15.6- 15.7 per cent, an expansion of 10 to 20 basis points over adjusted operating margin. It now expects diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $12.55 to $12.79.
Dividend update
On February 14, 2025, Accenture said, a quarterly cash dividend of $1.48 per share was paid to shareholders of record at the close of business on January 16, 2025. These cash dividend payments totaled $929 million. Accenture has declared another quarterly cash dividend of $1.48 per share for shareholders of record at the close of business on April 10, 2025. This dividend, which is payable on May 15, 2025, represents a 15 per cent increase over the quarterly dividend rate of $1.29 per share in fiscal 2024.
Attrition rate
The IT services giant witnessed an increase in headcount by 2,000 employees to 801,099 in Q2FY25. In the previous quarter, the company had added about 24,000 employees. Accenture’s attrition rate increased by 1 percentage point to 13 per cent for the quarter in review.