Accenture logs $18 billion Q3 revenue, revenue misses estimates

Global IT major Accenture’s results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, announced on Thursday, indicated a quarter of lacklustre demand for the $315 billion Indian IT industry, as the company missed revenue estimates and slashed its guidance.

Accenture follows a September to August fiscal year.

The Dublin-headquartered company reported revenue of $18.7 billion for the quarter ended May, up 6% year-on-year, but narrowly missed Wall Street estimates of about $18.8 billion, adding to concerns around slowing discretionary technology spending.


“Our revenue was impacted by approximately $100 million compared to our expectations due to conflicts in the Middle East,” chief executive Julie Sweet said in the post-earnings call, adding that sales in the region and parts of Europe were also affected by longer decision-making cycles. She also noted that a couple of large managed services deals had shifted into fiscal 2027 for company-specific reasons.

The company also trimmed its full-year revenue growth guidance to 3-4% in constant currency from the 3-5% range projected earlier.

Industry experts read the results as a mixed bag for Indian tech service providers, given their limited exposure to the Middle East conflict, but noted the overall slowing growth.

“It should be read as cautionary by the Indian IT industry. The Americas is the primary market for the Indian companies and ACN’s slower growth is worrisome. Indian companies need to act with urgency on vendor consolidation and legacy modernisation opportunities, which can help sustain short to medium term growth momentum,” said Praveen Bhadada, chief executive of consulting firm Neovay Global.

Across geographies, the Asia Pacific was the strongest-performing region with 8% constant currency growth, followed by EMEA at 4%, while the Americas, its largest revenue-contributing region, grew 1%.

The results dragged Accenture's shares down 17% in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of industry peer Cognizant also fell 8%, while US-listed shares of Wipro and Infosys fell 1% and 2.6%, respectively.

“They had a minor miss (in revenue) due to the Middle East conflict, but for Indian service providers, it would be a status quo kind of a quarter because they aren't as exposed to the crisis,” said Pareekh Jain, chief executive of EIIRTrend.

Consulting revenue rose 1% in local currency to $9.3 billion, while managed services revenue increased 5% to $9.4 billion, even as growth in consulting bookings outpaced that of managed services, indicating continued traction in outsourcing-led deals.

Accenture also doubled down on acquisitions to strengthen its capabilities in cybersecurity and infrastructure visibility, and announced a majority stake acquisition in industrial cybersecurity specialist Dragos, and 100% of runZero and NetRise at a combined enterprise value of approximately $4.18 billion.

Gaurav Parab, principal analyst at NelsonHall, said Accenture’s acquisitions highlight where future technology spending is headed.

“These are forward-looking bets on where AI as well as IT is heading—into physical and industrial systems, and into deep industry-specific platforms, not just horizontal software. Some Indian firms have capabilities here, but overall Indian IT has been conservative in this space around M&A and they will need to close that gap to stay in the same conversation," he said.