Accenture Reaffirms Fiscal Year 2012 Guidance; Announces Buyback, Raises Dividend

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Last Update: 28-Sep-11 09:22 ET

Accenture (ACN $53.65) reported fourth quarter earnings of $0.91 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.89.

Revenues rose 23.4% year/year to $6.69 billion versus the $6.53 billion consensus.

Consulting net revenues were $3.9 billion, an increase of 25% in U.S. dollars and 16% in local currency compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. Outsourcing net revenues were $2.8 billion, an increase of 21% in U.S. dollars and 13% in local currency compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. New bookings for the fourth quarter were approx. $8.4 billion. This reflects a positive 9% foreign-currency impact compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010.

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011, Accenture repurchased or redeemed 13.1 million shares for a total of $731 million, including $621 million for 11.3 million shares repurchased on the open market.

For its first quarter, the company expects to see revenue of $6.8 billion to $7.0 billion, excluding non-recurring items, versus the $6.7 billion Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

For fiscal year 2012, the company sees earnings of $3.80 to $3.88 versus the $3.76 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees revenue of +7% to +10% to approx. $27.3 billion to $28.1 billion, excluding non-recurring items, versus the $27.62 billion Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.

Accenture expects operating margin for the full fiscal year to be in the range of 13.7% to 13.9%, an expansion of 10 to 30 bps. The company expects operating cash flow to be $3.6 billion to $3.9 billion; property and equipment additions to be $490 million; and free cash flow to be in the range of $3.1 billion to $3.4 billion.

Accenture is targeting new bookings for fiscal 2012 in the range of $28 billion to $31 billion. In addition, Accenture's Board of Directors has declared a semi-annual cash dividend of 67.5 cents per share, an increase of 22.5 cents per share, or 50%, over its previous semi-annual dividend, declared in March. The Board also approved $5 billion in additional share repurchase authority.