Finance and Economics APP learned that the globally renowned IT services company Accenture (ACN.US) announced its latest financial report on Thursday, along with a share buyback plan of up to $4 billion. Due to the extremely strong demand from enterprise customers wishing to adopt generative artificial intelligence technology, the company's performance in the fourth quarter exceeded expectations, primarily benefiting from the strong demand from enterprises for Accenture's comprehensive generative AI services.

Accenture's latest financial report for the fourth quarter ending August 31 showed that the development speed of its generative artificial intelligence business far exceeded other core businesses, as enterprise organizations increasingly seek generative AI automation to reduce operating costs and improve operational efficiency.

Accenture's financial data shows that in the past four quarters, bookings for generative artificial intelligence-related businesses have shown strong quarterly growth, totaling approximately $3 billion for the full year.

The IT consulting services leader, headquartered in Dublin, reported total revenue of approximately $16.41 billion for the fourth quarter, a 3% increase compared to the same period last year, slightly higher than the $16.38 billion widely expected by Wall Street analysts. Among them, the company's generative artificial intelligence-related business helped offset the significant slowdown in demand for other types of IT services, maintaining positive growth for four consecutive quarters.

Accenture's new bookings are a key indicator of measuring customer contract value, with the scale of new bookings in the fourth quarter increasing from $17.25 billion in the third quarter to $20.1 billion, a year-on-year growth of 21%. The generative artificial intelligence-related business bookings contributed a substantial $1 billion to the company's new bookings, compared to $0.9 billion in the previous quarter.

Excluding items, the company's earnings per share for the fourth quarter were $2.79, exceeding the Wall Street analysts' expectation of $2.78 per share. However, the midpoint of the forecasted revenue growth range for the 2025 fiscal year of 3% to 6% by the company is lower than the average analyst estimate of a 5.9% growth rate.

Although analysts expect a significant turning point in Accenture's IT services revenue, the analysts' expectations for Accenture's overall performance next year are still relatively modest compared to their expectations for leaders in AI applications such as Microsoft and Palantir.

Earlier, analysts at JPMorgan stated that they are not as bullish on the IT service consulting industry as they were at this time last year, and added that enterprise clients may continue to resist increasing discretionary spend on IT projects due to interest rates and weakness in the consumer side.

Before Accenture released its earnings, another Wall Street giant, Morgan Stanley, stated that it is expected that in the coming quarters, overall IT service demand from enterprises may generally be lower than market consensus expectations.

Tata Consultancy Services, headquartered in India, stated that predicting a sustained growth trend in the coming quarters is "premature".

Accenture, headquartered in Dublin, recently changed its main promotion dates from December to June. Although the company claims this change is consistent with better customer planning and demand visibility, Morgan Stanley's analyst team stated that this has triggered market concerns about a comprehensive near-term performance recovery.

The growth of Accenture's business driven by generative AI is not only reflected in the company's overall revenue data, but also boosts investors' confidence, driving the company's stock price significantly higher in pre-market trading. However, Accenture's stock price has been in a weak trend for most of this year, with a decline of up to 3% so far this year, compared to the S&P 500 index's increase of up to 20% year to date. More importantly, Accenture's announcement of a $4 billion share buyback plan also sends a strong bullish signal, indicating the company's confidence in future profitability. Share buyback plans often boost earnings per share (EPS), further pushing up the stock price.

As of 2024, Accenture has provided consulting and implementation services for clients in over 700 generative AI projects, offering one-stop solutions for enterprise clients to utilize AI to optimize operations and achieve business growth, from data processing to generative AI for helping companies improve operational efficiency. These solutions range from helping insurance companies increase revenue to providing personalized customer services for banks, demonstrating the strong potential of generative AI across various industries.

In addition, Accenture is collaborating with leaders in generative AI applications such as Adobe to jointly develop industry-specific generative AI solutions, accelerating content production, optimizing customer experiences, and significantly improving operational efficiency in sectors such as retail, autos, financial services, and medical care through generative AI.