Accenture Offers Up a Beat and Raise Quarter

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) released its fiscal Q2 earnings after the closing bell on Thursday. The consulting giant reported net income attributable to the company of $643.92 million, or $0.97 per share, versus $503.02 million or $0.75 per share, in the year ago period. This compared to Wall Street analysts consensus EPS estimates of $0.86. Revenues for the quarter came in at $7.26 billion versus $6.50 billion in last year's second quarter. This also exceeded Street estimates of $6.64 billion. Looking ahead, Accenture sees net revenues for the third quarter in a range between $7.05 billion and $7.25 billion. Wall Street currently has consensus Q3 revenue estimates of $7.02 billion. For fiscal 2012, Accenture now sees earnings per share between $3.82 to $3.90 versus previous guidance of $3.76 to $3.84. The company also raised its revenue outlook and now sees growth in the range of 10 to 12 percent versus its previous guidance calling for 7 to 10 percent revenue growth. The Street currently expects ACN to report EPS of $3.82 on revenues of $27.68 billion in fiscal 2012. In Thursday's after hours trading session, ACN shares have risen 2.08% to $63.52. Pierre Nanterme, Accenture's chief executive officer, said, “We are very pleased with our second-quarter performance, which included strong revenue growth in all five operating groups and all three geographic regions. We're also pleased with our profitability — both the growth in EPS and the expansion of operating margin — due to the disciplined management of our business. We continued to see solid demand for our services, as demonstrated by outstanding bookings of nearly $8 billion, and our balance sheet remains very strong.“Given our strong results for the first half of fiscal 2012, we've raised our outlook for revenue growth and EPS for the year. We continue to invest to further differentiate our industry and technology capabilities and remain focused on gaining market share and driving profitable growth.”