NEW YORK, June 19, 2026, 04:21 (EDT)
- Accenture shares finished Thursday at $127.98, sliding 17.97%. The stock is now about 24.8% under where it finished June 12, which was the last close before the Juneteenth market break on Friday.
- Accenture posted $18.72 billion in revenue for the quarter and said it signed $19.32 billion in new work. The company lowered its sales-growth forecast for fiscal 2026, stripping out currency moves, to 3% to 4%.
- IT services shares dropped after the update. Reuters said Infosys, Cognizant and IBM lost between 5.7% and 10.5%. Capgemini finished down 8.9%.
Accenture shares finished Thursday at $127.98, down 17.97%, after hitting a 52-week low of $125.60 in the session. The move puts the consulting giant’s AI pitch in the spotlight ahead of the long weekend, with Monday’s U.S. open set to test market conviction.
No follow-through in the Friday cash session. The New York Stock Exchange marks Friday, June 19, 2026, as closed for Juneteenth National Independence Day. On other days, the normal core session is 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
Accenture’s drop stood out, as it came while the S&P 500 climbed 1.08% and the Nasdaq added 1.91% on Thursday. Accenture was the biggest faller on the Investing.com market-movers table. The market move pointed to company issues and some reverberation in the sector.
Accenture shares slid 24.8% in the holiday week, dropping from $170.28 on June 12 to $127.98 by June 18. That decline is what investors will see first on Monday—before any pitch from management about client demand for scaling up AI pilots.
Accenture’s third-quarter results weren’t a total miss, but the numbers didn’t come in clean, either. The company posted revenue of $18.72 billion for the quarter, up 6% in U.S. dollars and 3% in local currency before adjusting for currency moves. New bookings dropped 2% in dollar terms to $19.32 billion, or down 3% in local currency.
The outlook hit Accenture harder. The company cut its forecast for fiscal 2026 revenue growth to 3% to 4% in local currency, from its previous 3% to 5% range. Reuters said Accenture’s fourth-quarter revenue guidance is $17.75 billion to $18.4 billion, coming in under the $18.47 billion average estimate from analysts polled by LSEG.
Chief Executive Julie Sweet said the AI push will not be immediate. “AI scaling will take some time,” she told CNBC, per Business Insider. Sweet also said the company is increasing its consulting work as clients seek more reinvention. Business Insider
The market didn’t wait around. Phil Fersht, chief analyst at HFS Research, told Reuters Accenture’s results point to demand moving to focused AI work, but big consulting and transformation projects are still feeling the pinch. That’s the tough takeaway: AI is generating activity but hasn’t delivered enough clear growth to calm worries about pressure on legacy consulting business.
Accenture is pushing into operational technology cybersecurity with new deals. The company said it would buy a majority stake in Dragos, and also pick up runZero and NetRise, planning to create a platform for industrial cybersecurity. Operational technology covers systems behind plants, grids, and other physical assets. Accenture’s own figures showed the combined enterprise value at about $4.175 billion, with the acquisitions set to add around $208 million in annual recurring revenue.
But the risks are clear. If the Middle East remains unstable, if clients push back their large transformation projects, or if cybersecurity acquisitions drag out longer than expected, Accenture’s low valuation may not be enough to hold the stock. The company’s latest forecast already points to a softer finish than investors had hoped.
Traders are eyeing next week to see if Thursday’s $125.60 low holds and if peers bounce back. There’s also a question of whether analysts trim fiscal 2027 estimates after the recent booking slowdown. Monday’s open is set to matter more, with Friday’s holiday just pushing back the decision.
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