Accenture PLC (ACN)

Accenture reported fiscal 2026 revenue of $74.18 billion on October 1, up 6 percent in U.S. dollars and 5 percent in local currency 2. Net income was $8.52 billion and diluted earnings per share were $13.56 2. Fourth-quarter revenue of $18.68 billion was above the company's guided range 2.

Chair and chief executive Julie Sweet said the company reached a new high of 141 quarterly client bookings of $100 million or more and returned a record $11.5 billion to shareholders 2. The annual report adds that the business environment stayed competitive, with lower pricing in many areas in the fourth quarter 1.

For fiscal 2027 the company expects revenue growth of 3 percent to 6 percent in local currency and diluted earnings per share of $14.39 to $14.81 2. It also expects to return at least $9.5 billion in cash to shareholders 2.

At an investor day on October 14 the company set out a growth ambition of mid-single digit growth in FY27 and FY28, meaning its fiscal years ending in August 3. Its Dragos purchase, a majority stake in an industrial cybersecurity firm, closed in the first quarter of FY27 3.

Open questions include a Department of Justice investigation of its federal unit, which the company cannot yet size, and how far artificial intelligence reduces or redirects client spending 1.

Accenture plc was incorporated in Ireland on June 10, 2009, as a public limited company, and runs its business through subsidiaries 9. Its earlier partners received exchangeable shares and Class X shares in that move to a corporate structure 1.

In fiscal 2022 revenue rose to $61.6 billion from $50.5 billion, up 22 percent in U.S. dollars, as the company said it saw very strong demand while clients continued their digital transformations 10. The company also sold its Russian business and recorded a $96 million loss 10.

In fiscal 2023 revenue reached $64.1 billion, up 4 percent in U.S. dollars and 8 percent in local currency, while consulting revenue fell 1 percent in dollars and Communications, Media & Technology fell 6 percent 9. Management said clients slowed spending, especially on smaller, shorter contracts 9.

To cut costs the company recorded $1,063 million of business optimization costs in fiscal 2023, primarily for employee severance, which cut operating margin to 13.7 percent from 15.2 percent 9. Another $438 million followed in fiscal 2024 for actions begun the year before 8.

The annual report says an early decision in the same stretch to invest $3.0 billion over three years in artificial intelligence (AI) positioned the company to capture that new area of client spending 1.

In fiscal 2025 revenue was $69.7 billion, up 7 percent, but new bookings slipped 1 percent to $80.6 billion 8. The company said U.S. federal spending cuts led by the Department of Government Efficiency delayed procurements and cut prices, scope and contracts at its federal unit 8.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 it began new business optimization actions and recorded $615 million 8. That included $344 million for a talent rotation and about $271 million of impairments tied to selling two acquisitions 8.

In fiscal 2026 the six-month program ended in the first quarter with $308 million of costs, revenue grew 6 percent to $74.2 billion, and operating margin rose to 15.4 percent from 14.7 percent 1.

In June 2026 the company trimmed its revenue outlook to 3 percent to 4 percent in local currency, citing an estimated 1 percent drag from U.S. federal business 4. Full-year growth then came in at 5 percent, above that range 2. On June 23 it raised fiscal 2026 repurchases by $2 billion to $7.5 billion 11.

What the company sells

Accenture calls itself a business reinvention and technology company that sells consulting, managed services, proprietary assets and platforms, and increasingly software 1. Consulting is project work such as redesigning processes or modernizing technology, while managed services run client operations on an ongoing basis 1.

In fiscal 2026 consulting brought in $36.9 billion, up 5 percent in dollars, and managed services $37.3 billion, up 8 percent 1. Managed services bookings were $43.7 billion against $40.9 billion for consulting 1.

Seven services, three engines

Its offerings are organized as seven Reinvention Partners: Cybersecurity, Digital Core, Finance, Industry and Enterprise, Song, Supply Chain and Engineering, and Talent 1. Song covers marketing, sales, commerce and design work for the customer side of a client 1.

Three Reinvention Engines (AI and Data, Industry and Process, and Technology) supply the specialist skills, delivery centers and tools behind them 1. Proprietary platforms named in the annual report include GenWizard, SynOps and reinvention.AI 1.

Industries served

Products is the largest industry group at $22.5 billion, 30 percent of revenue, covering consumer goods, retail, industrials and life sciences 1. Health & Public Service brought $15.2 billion and Financial Services $14.0 billion 1.

Communications, Media & Technology was $12.7 billion, up 11 percent, and Resources $9.9 billion, up 5 percent 1. Communications, Media & Technology includes software and platforms firms and what the report calls frontier model owners 1.

Where the revenue comes from

The Americas produced $36.5 billion in fiscal 2026, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) $27.0 billion and Asia Pacific $10.7 billion 1. Asia Pacific grew 8 percent in local currency against 4 percent for each of the other two 1.

Operating income was $6.2 billion in the Americas, $3.4 billion in EMEA and $1.7 billion in Asia Pacific, where it fell from the year before 1.

Clients and the federal business

The company serves more than 9,000 clients, about three quarters of the Fortune Global 100 and 500 and every G7 government, with 317 Diamond clients as its largest relationships 1.

Accenture Federal Services was about 7 percent of total revenue in fiscal 2026, and it is the unit under a Justice Department investigation 1.

AI and partners

The company reports nearly 110,000 skilled AI and data practitioners and says its 18 key ecosystem partners were about 65 percent of fiscal 2026 revenue 1. On December 9, 2025 it formed the Accenture Anthropic Business Group, training about 30,000 professionals on Claude 7.

On January 6, 2026 it agreed to acquire Faculty, a UK firm with more than 400 AI professionals, and the release said Faculty's chief executive Marc Warner would become its chief technology officer 61.

People and places

Accenture had about 814,000 people on August 31, 2026, most of them in India, the Philippines and the U.S., with offices in 52 countries 1. It does not own any material real property, and substantially all its facilities are leased 1.

Julie Sweet has been chief executive since September 2019 and chair since September 2021, and Angie Park became chief financial officer in December 2024 1. Voluntary attrition was 13 percent and utilization 93 percent in fiscal 2026 1.

Rivals

The annual report names kinds of rivals rather than companies: large IT service providers, offshore providers in India, accounting firms and consultancies, AI-native companies, and clients' own in-house centers 1. The proxy statement lists Cognizant and IBM among its executive pay peers 17.

Current problems

The Justice Department opened a civil and criminal inquiry into whether Accenture Federal Services employees gave inaccurate submissions about security controls, and the company cannot yet estimate the cost 1. A class action over the Starwood data breach, filed in 2019, is also still being defended 1.

The umbrella, in words

Brands and businesses: about 6 percent of revenue came from a network of businesses that includes Dragos, Faculty, Accenture Construct, DLB, LearnVantage, Ookla, Alfahealth, Avanade and Accenture Edge 1.

Subsidiaries: Exhibit 21 lists principal subsidiaries country by country, among them CyberCX in Australia, Droga5 and Ookla units in several countries and Faculty Science Limited in the United Kingdom 14. Accenture Capital Inc. is a wholly owned finance subsidiary that issues the group's notes 13.

Ties: it owns a majority of Dragos and all of runZero and NetRise, agreed in June 2026 5. Avanade is a majority-owned subsidiary whose minority owners share its income 1.

Control: BlackRock reported 8.3 percent of Class A shares in a Schedule 13G amendment, and Vanguard Capital Management reported 7.51 percent, both as passive holders 1516. Class X shares carry one vote each, with 300,673 outstanding on August 31, 2026 1.

Land: the company does not own material real property and leases substantially all its offices 1.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2027 the company expects revenue of $18.95 billion to $19.60 billion, or 2 percent to 6 percent growth in local currency 2. For the full year it expects an operating margin of 15.9 percent to 16.1 percent 2.

The company also guides to operating cash flow of $11.9 billion to $12.7 billion, capital spending of $900 million and free cash flow of $11.0 billion to $11.8 billion for the year 2.

A quarterly dividend of $1.71 per share, 5 percent above the fiscal 2026 rate, is payable on November 13, 2026 2. The board added $6.0 billion of repurchase authority in September 2026, bringing the total outstanding to about $6.9 billion 2.

At its investor day the company set an ambition of 10 to 30 basis points of margin expansion in each of FY27, FY28 and FY29, and cash flow of at least 1.1 times net income 3. It also set a market size of $3 trillion for its scope, based on analyst research 3.

On acquisitions, the same presentation shows an estimated contribution of about 2 to 2.5 percent to FY27 revenue from deals, against about 1.5 percent in FY26 3.

The annual report says the company expects to invest at least $1.0 billion over the next five years in AI safety 1. It expects to declare further quarterly dividends in December 2026 and March and June 2027, subject to board approval 1.

The company says it can issue up to $8.1 billion of commercial paper, backed by a five-year facility and a 364-day facility signed on April 22, 2026 12. It also guides to an annual effective tax rate of 24.5 percent to 26.5 percent for fiscal 2027 2.

The company assumes foreign exchange will be flat for the fiscal 2027 year and about negative 1 percent for the first quarter 2. Its guidance of 3 percent to 6 percent growth is stated in local currency, not U.S. dollars 2.

Pending items include the Justice Department inquiry, which the company says it cannot yet resolve or cost 1.

Past

Accenture's revenue grew from $36 billion in fiscal 2017 to $74 billion in fiscal 2026, up 8.3% a year, and rose in 9 of 9 years with no fall from a peak; net income was positive in 10 of 10 of those years. Over the three fiscal years to 2026-08-31, the diluted share count shrank about 1.1% a year, and dividends and buybacks returned about 51% of its operating cash flow. Its officers and directors filed 103 sales and 0 purchases of their own stock on the open market in the year to 2026-10-13. 1

Present

In its latest annual figures on file, for the fiscal year ended 2026-08-31, Accenture reported revenue of $74 billion and a profit of $8.4 billion. It earned about 26 cents of profit for every dollar of shareholders' money, and its products earned about 32 cents per dollar of everything the company owns; it owed about 56 cents per dollar of assets, and its share count shrank 2.4% over the year. Its revenue of $74 billion in fiscal 2026 ranks in the top 1% by size in its industry family; a net margin of 11.3% ranks in the top 25%; revenue growth of 5% a year over the last 3 filed years ranks in the bottom 42%. 21

The chief executive on the record is Sweet, Julie Spellman, filing under that title since 2015-06-09, 11.4 years; the 22 officers and directors filing in the last fifteen months have been on the record a median of 3.8 years; 6 officer or director changes were reported since 2023-10-21. 1

Future

A quarterly report (Form 10-Q) for the quarter ending 2026-11-30 is due by 2027-01-09. An annual report (Form 10-K) for the fiscal year ending 2027-08-31 is due by 2027-10-30. 3

Accenture's cash of $13 billion against debt of $10.0 billion leaves 3.8% of its assets as net cash; cash from operations less capital spending is 15.7% of revenue; a gross margin of 32%; research spending of 1.4% of revenue. Revenue grew 5% a year over the last three filed years against 8.3% over all 10, slowing; the newest year grew 6.5%; research spending grew -8% a year; capital spending grew 12% a year. 1

How the company operates

Accenture is classed as a marketplace business in business services. The company reported 3 lines of business in fiscal 2025: Americas at $35 billion (50%), EMEA at $25 billion (35%), Asia Pacific at $10.0 billion (14%); 3 of 3 grew against the year before. 21

New moves

On 2026-10-14, Accenture filed Form 8-K with a disclosure to investors under Regulation FD. On 2026-10-14, Accenture PLC filed a Form 8-K. 34