NEW YORK, June 18, 2026, 09:06 EDT
- Accenture is now guiding for 3% to 4% full-year local-currency revenue growth. Ongoing pressure from U.S. federal contracts continues to drag this year.
- The stock looked headed for a steep drop before the bell, after the company issued fourth-quarter revenue guidance that missed Wall Street forecasts.
- Accenture is spending $4.18 billion on cybersecurity deals in a move to secure industrial and other critical systems. The company announced the plans Tuesday.
Accenture shares dropped hard in premarket trade Thursday after the consulting and tech firm cut its full-year sales forecast. This overshadowed news of a $4.18 billion cybersecurity acquisition. The guidance cut comes as the stock faces investor worry over weaker IT budgets and what AI means for consulting jobs.
Accenture is often seen as a gauge for tech spending, so its downbeat forecast is raising questions. The outlook points to clients holding off on some projects, despite companies pouring money into AI and cybersecurity. Investors are wondering if AI brings new business for consultants, or ends up replacing them.
Accenture posted a 6% gain in fiscal third-quarter revenue to $18.7 billion. Stripping out currency moves, revenue was up 3%. Diluted EPS climbed 9% to $3.80. Operating margin was 17.0%, up 20 basis points. New bookings dropped to $19.3 billion, down from $19.7 billion last year.
Accenture cut its full-year revenue growth outlook to 3% to 4% in local currency, narrowing from the earlier 3% to 5% target, Reuters said. The company said that without the roughly 1 percentage point drag from its U.S. federal business, growth would be 4% to 5%.
Accenture put its Q4 revenue guidance at $17.75 billion to $18.4 billion, coming in under Wall Street’s average estimate of $18.47 billion, based on LSEG data in Reuters. That revenue miss drew most of the focus from investors.
Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said “demand for large scale reinvention remains strong” and noted the company has booked 104 clients with $100 million or more so far this fiscal year. Sweet said larger AI transformation deals are starting to show up. Still, investors pushed shares lower as they looked for clearer proof that AI programs can make up for softness elsewhere. Business Wire
Accenture is buying a majority stake in Dragos, along with all of runZero and NetRise, in a move to expand its operational technology security offering. Operational technology covers the systems that keep physical infrastructure—like power grids, plants, pipelines, warehouses, and data centers—running.
Accenture says it expects its deals for three companies to close in August or September, pending approvals, and projects about $208 million in annual recurring revenue from them as of June 2026. Dragos co-founder and CEO Robert M. Lee warned that cybersecurity failures in critical sectors like energy, water and manufacturing can turn into “societal threats.” Business Wire
Accenture’s new deal hands it a deeper product and platform lineup in cybersecurity, moving beyond just services. The move comes as investors are being told to look through expected near-term dilution and integration risk, while consulting demand softens.
Accenture’s outlook dragged down peers. Reuters said Infosys dropped 3.8% and Cognizant lost 4.4% in premarket U.S. trading, with Capgemini down 6.8% in Paris. The pullback tied back to market concerns around IT services demand.
Accenture faces a risk that its AI investments won’t convert to big implementation projects right away, and some clients are choosing to handle more work with their own AI. The firm’s positive scenario is federal demand stabilizing, continued growth in cybersecurity, and AI projects moving past pilots into larger, long-term transformation deals.
Accenture kept up strong cash flow, with $3.6 billion in free cash generated for the quarter. It sent $2.2 billion back to shareholders, using buybacks and putting out a $1.63-per-share dividend. But on Thursday, that didn’t drive the action in the stock.
