Accenture unveiled a $4.0 billion share buyback and reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue driven by a high demand surge from companies looking to adopt generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Shares of the information technology (IT) major were up nearly seven per cent in premarket trading. The Dublin-based company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $16.41 billion, slightly better compared to analysts’ expectations.
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 new bookings
Accenture’s new bookings, a key metric indicating the value of customer contracts with spending commitments, rose to $20.1 billion for the fourth quarter, up from $17.25 billion in the third quarter.
Generative AI bookings contributed $1 billion to the company’s new bookings, compared to $900 million in the previous quarter.