Accenture's Raised FY25 Revenue Guidance Boosts IT Shares in a Lackluster Market
Information technology shares saw increases in a lackluster market following Accenture's increase in its FY25 revenue projection.
However, early gains faded at closing as investors withdrew their wagers, believing that the potential would be limited going forward.
A few analysts predict that growth will start to overcome economic obstacles in CY2, and that outsourced bookings will be positive for the Indian IT industry as well.
Brokerage firms predict that following Accenture's earnings and before India's Q2 earnings, which are expected to be released on October 10, 2024, Indian IT companies—including all bluechips, largecaps, and midcap stocks—will continue to be in the spotlight. Additionally, the stock values of the IT counters will be supported by the declining interest rates.
Accenture produced Q4FY24 results that were in line. At $16.4 billion, revenue increased 2.6 percent YoY and five percent CC YoY, in line with Street estimates. Services related to outsourcing grew 4.6 percent YoY, with consultancy finally starting to increase again. According to Nuvama Institutional Equities, overall bookings increased by a strong 21.1 percent YoY to $20.1 billion, with outsourcing bookings rising 41.5 percent YoY to $11.6 billion.
Positive prognosis for FY25 indicates that customer spending will start to increase in Q2 of FY25.
The forecast for FY25 has brightened because client spending is starting to show signs of life. Strong order book momentum with $81.2 billion in bookings for FY24 supports the improved commentary. According to Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, given the conversion of significant transformational deals during the previous 18 to 24 months, it anticipates sustained broad-based growth across all verticals.
Between Q3 and Q4 of FY24, not much changed in the demand climate. Positive prognosis for FY25 indicates that customer spending will start to increase in Q2 of FY25. Given that there has already been one rate reduction and that the US elections will conclude by December 24, clients will be better prepared to announce new IT budgets and increase spending. This is supported by an increase in organic revenue and consultancy business, it said.
Today's focus will also be on midcap and smallcap IT counters such as Cyient, Coforge, Sonata Software, Mphasis, Newgen Software, and Birlasoft.
Promising opportunities for service providers in the medium to long term are indicated by the strong growth observed in both the outsourcing and consulting businesses, as well as the increased focus by companies on developing digital cores to drive productivity and growth through generative AI, according to Antique Stock Broking.