Accenture's Stock Drops After Sales Miss, Downbeat Outlook

Accenture PLC's stock fell 0.9% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the consulting company missed fiscal first-quarter revenue expectations and provided a downbeat full-year outlook. Earnings for the quarter to Nov. 30 rose to $1.05 billion, or $1.58 a share, from $858.5 million, or $1.28 a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was $1.49. Net revenue, which excludes reimbursements, rose to $8.52 billion from $8.01 billion, while total revenue grew to $9.01 billion from $8.47 billion. That missed the FactSet consensus for net revenue of $8.59 billion and for total revenue of $9.07 billion. Looking ahead, the company expects net revenue of $8.15 billion to $8.40 billion for the current quarter, below expectations of $8.50 billion, and cut its fiscal 2017 EPS outlook to $5.64 to $5.87 from $5.75 to $5.98 to reflect new foreign-exchange assumptions. The stock has run up 19% year to date through Tuesday, while the S&P 500 has gained 11%.