Caesars Entertainment misses Q2 earnings expectations, shares edge lower
Investing.com -- Accenture (NYSE:ACN) shares slid around 3% in premarket trading Friday, even though the company lifted its earnings guidance and reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter of fiscal 2025.
The services and consulting firm now expects full-year earnings per share (EPS) of $12.77 to $12.89, up from the previous forecast of $12.55 to $12.79, and above the consensus estimate of $12.73.
It anticipates revenue growth of 6% to 7% in local currency. The expected foreign exchange impact has been updated to a modest positive 0.2%.
Accenture projects an operating margin of 15.6% for the year, representing a 10 basis point improvement over the prior adjusted margin.
The free cash flow (FCF) outlook was also raised to the range of $9.0 billion to $9.7 billion, up from $8.8 billion to $9.5 billion.
For the fourth quarter, Accenture expects revenue to range between $17.0 billion and $17.6 billion, implying year-over-year growth of 1% to 5%. The midpoint of the guidance is slightly above analysts’ estimate of $17.08 billion.
“I am very pleased with our third quarter fiscal 2025 results, including our 30 clients with quarterly bookings greater than $100 million, broad-based growth and continued expansion of our leadership in Gen AI," said Accenture Chair and CEO Julie Sweet.
For the third quarter, the company reported EPS of $3.49, beating the consensus estimate of $3.31. Revenue for the three-month period reached $17.7 billion, also ahead of the $17.27 billion analysts had forecast.
Accenture reported $1.5 billion in new generative AI bookings for the quarter. Total (EPA:TTEF) bookings came in at $19.7 billion, down 6.6% from a year earlier and slightly below the $20.03 billion expected.
Gross margin declined to 32.9% from 33.4% a year ago, missing the consensus estimate of 33.3%.