Accenture Q4 2026 earnings: revenue, profit beat estimates on record bookings
Accenture topped both profit and sales estimates for its fiscal Q4 2026, posted record bookings, and issued solid guidance for fiscal 2027.
| Q4 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $3.29 | $3.21 | +2.4% |
| Revenue | $18.68B | $18.21B | +2.6% |
Key takeaways
- Revenue of $18.68 billion and adjusted profit both came in above Wall Street forecasts and above the top of the range Accenture itself had guided to ($17.75-$18.40 billion) heading into the quarter.
- Growth was broad-based rather than concentrated in one area: all three regions (Americas, EMEA, Asia Pacific) grew 7% in local currency, and all five industry groups the company tracks posted gains, led by communications, media and technology at 10%.
- New bookings — contracts signed but not yet turned into revenue, a signal of future demand — hit a record $22.2 billion for the quarter, including a record 141 individual deals worth $100 million or more, pointing to a healthy pipeline of future work.
- Operating margin (profit left after running the business, before interest and taxes) rose to 15.3% for the quarter, continuing a trend reflected in the trailing-twelve-month operating margin of roughly 14.5% — a sign Accenture is extracting slightly more profit from each dollar of revenue even as it keeps investing in AI capabilities.
- For the full fiscal year, revenue reached $74.18 billion, up 6% in dollar terms, and adjusted earnings per share rose 8% to $13.97, both ahead of the growth rates Accenture had originally guided to at the start of the year.
- Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, Accenture guided to local-currency revenue growth of 3% to 6% and diluted earnings per share of $14.39 to $14.81, and said it plans to return at least $9.5 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.
- Management flagged an estimated $1 billion annualized revenue hit from the Middle East conflict as a headwind baked into the new outlook, a reminder that geopolitical disruption is weighing on an otherwise strong growth picture.
- CEO Julie Sweet said the company “exceeded our fourth-quarter revenue guidance range” and highlighted the record bookings and shareholder returns as evidence that client demand for large-scale technology and AI-related work remains strong even as Accenture has stopped breaking out AI bookings as a separate line item.
Q4 2026 in context
| Metric | Aug 2026 | Aug 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $18.7B | $17.6B | +6.2% |
| Net income | $2.0B | $1.4B | +40.8% |
| Free cash flow | $2.8B | $3.8B | -25.3% |
| Diluted EPS | $3.29 | $2.25 | +46.2% |
| Gross margin | 32.0% | 31.9% | +0.2 pts |
| Operating margin | 15.3% | 11.6% | +3.7 pts |
| Net margin | 10.7% | 8.0% | +2.6 pts |
Figures for the quarter ended Aug 2026 and the quarter ended Aug 2025, as reported to the SEC.
How the stock took it
Accenture PLC closed at $183.37 on Sep 30, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $198.90 on Oct 2, 2026, the first session after it — +8.5% across the report.
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 32.0% | Trailing 12 months |
| Operating margin | 14.5% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | 10.7% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | 14.6% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | $12.51 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 6.7% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS growth (YoY) | -0.4% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | 24.9% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report · earnings call