Accenture unveils US$4 billion share buyback as AI powers strong quarterly revenue

IT SERVICES firm Accenture on Thursday (Sep 26) unveiled a US$4 billion share buyback and reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue thanks to demand from companies looking to adopt generative artificial intelligence technology.

Shares of the company were up nearly 7 per cent in premarket trading.

The Dublin-based company reported fourth-quarter revenue of US$16.41 billion, compared with analysts expectations of US$16.38 billion, according to LSEG data.

Its generative AI business, which helped the company offset the slowdown in demand for IT services, continued to grow for a fourth successive quarter.

Accenture’s new bookings, a key metric indicating the value of customer contracts with spending commitments, rose to US$20.1 billion for the fourth quarter, up from US$17.25 billion in the third quarter.

Generative AI bookings contributed US$1 billion to the company’s new bookings, compared to US$900 million in the previous quarter. REUTERS