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🖥️ Accenture: An Accent On The Future?
Accenture (ACN) announced a one-time bonus for all employees globally, on the heels of a successful Q2 earnings report. (Tweet This)
Background: Founded as Andersen Consulting, the IT consulting firm based in Dublin, Ireland was renamed Accenture in 2001. The company went public in the same year. As of 2021, Accenture boasts of 197 acquisitions, 41 investments, and a workforce of 537K serving clients across 120 countries.
Although business was down (for almost every company) in the pandemic, Accenture has recovered to pre-pandemic levels already. The key to this success was adaptability. Accenture adopted remote work tools and analytics to increase employee efficiency before it became a common practice.
The company also formed Accenture Cloud in 2020 with $3B in investment to help clients in digital transformation and adoption of cloud. Additionally, Accenture spends $1B annually to reskill, train and educate employees. And all of these efforts are paying off slowly but surely!
What Happened?: The Q2 earnings surpassed analyst estimates. As a thank you to employees globally for delivering the results in a challenging year, Accenture announced a bonus of one week's salary to every employee below the managing director's level.
Q2 Key Stats:
Revenue is $12.1B, up 8% YoY and $140M above the guided range
New bookings are at a record $16.0B
Operating income is $1.65B
EPS $2.03 Vs. estimates of $1.90
Cash dividend of $0.88 per share, up 10% YoY
Accenture raised estimates for the business outlook of fiscal 2021, expecting full-year revenue growth of about 7.5%, a jump from the earlier guidance of 5%.
Separately, Accenture made a strategic investment in Arabesque S-Ray GmBH, a provider of ESG data and insights as part of its efforts to help clients manage environmental impact in their communities. Accenture also acquired Imaginea, a Mountain View, CA-based cloud-native company that will augment Accenture’s cloud offering. Another acquisition the company did this month was UK-based Cirrus, a leadership, and talent consultancy firm.
All said and done, Accenture is brimming with optimism for its future, a far cry from the doldrums it found itself in, as recently as two quarters ago. That’s a window into its clients’ growing confidence in the business conditions. The virtuous cycle seems to be well underway!
Market Reaction: ACN ended the day at $266.89, up 0.99%; in pre-market trading, the stock is up 0.73%.
Company Snapshot 📈
ACN $266.89 +2.62 (0.99%)
Analyst Ratings (29 Analysts) BUY 59% HOLD 38% SELL 03%
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Fun Fact of The Day 🌞
North Korea and Cuba are the only places you can't buy Coca-Cola
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