Global consulting giant Accenture Plc. (NYSE: ACN) closed FY 2025 on a strong note, reporting Q4 revenues of $17.6 billion, up 7% y-o-y in U.S. dollars (4.5% in local currency), at the top end of its guidance. The technology company posted a 9% increase in the adjusted earnings at $3.03 per share, surpassing analyst estimate of $2.98 per share for the quarter. Despite this, the stock tanked in the early hours on Thursday as the company laid off around 11,000 employees during the quarter under its business optimization program. Further, the company’s outlook for FY 2026 appeared subdued amid the macroeconomic uncertainty and the increased focus on AI-driven solutions in the consulting industry.
Operational Performance
For Q4 2025, new bookings totaled to $21.3 billion, a 6% increase in U.S. dollars, with consulting contributing $8.9 billion and managed services $12.4 billion. This served as a relief to the investors, following two consecutive quarters of decline. Notably, Generative AI bookings surged to $1.8 billion from $1.5 billion in the previous quarter, taking full-year AI bookings to $5.9 billion. This provides a decent visibility about the company’s future revenues and growth.
Accenture’s top-line grew by 7% y-o-y, despite lower U.S. federal government spending and weakness in the overall consulting industry. Consulting revenues rose 6% in U.S. dollar terms (3% in local currency) to $8.8 billion, while managed services grew 8% in U.S. dollars to $8.8 billion (6% in local currency). Across geographies, Americas revenue climbed 5% to $8.8 billion, EMEA advanced 10% to $6.2 billion. Asia Pacific led the growth with a 11% rise in revenue to $2.6 billion. Industry-wise, financial services stood out with a 15% y-o-y growth fueled by strong demand for digital transformation solutions, while health and public services declined 1% y-o-y during the period.
Accenture reported margin contraction during the quarter, with its GAAP operating margin declining 270 bps y-o-y to 11.6%, impacted by macroeconomic pressures and higher subcontractor costs. However, the company realized costs savings of $615 million under its restructuring or business optimization program which helped sustain its adjusted operating margin at 15.1%. Further, the company registered a growth in its adjusted bottom-line despite higher effective tax rate. Going forward, the company expects to deliver cost savings of $250 million in Q1 2026 as it will continue to realign its workforce, through layoffs and reskilling initiatives, to address the growing demand for digital and AI services.
Financial Performance
At the end of FY 2025, Accenture held a cash balance of $11.5 billion, doubling over last year’s balance, while total debt and lease liabilities reached $8.1 billion. The company returned $8.3 billion to shareholders during the year, including $4.6 billion in buybacks and $3.7 billion in dividends. In Q4 alone, it repurchased 1.6 million shares for a sum of $474 million. Additionally, the company increased the Q1 2026 dividend by 10% over the previous quarter to $1.63 per share, which will be payable in November 2025. Free cash flow stood at $3.8 billion, up from $3.2 billion a year earlier.
Realigning Workforce
At the end of August 2025, Accenture’s global headcount was 779,000, down from 791,000 in the previous quarter. Further, the company’s CEO Julie Sweet indicated that the layoffs could continue into the coming quarter as the company is “exiting people on a compressed timeline where reskilling is not a viable path” (excerpt from 4Q 2025 conference call). In simple words, the employees who are unable to upskill themselves to transition into AI or data-centric work will be asked to leave.
Sweet also highlighted the company’s plans to align its workforce to meet the rising client demand for AI-driven solutions. Accordingly, the company has started training its employees for agentic AI, which is a new wave of AI tools designed to automate complex tasks. This will enable the workforce to be more equipped to meet the client expectations that require them to reinvent operations with AI. Lastly, she also stated that the company expects to increase its headcount in AI, cloud, and digital transformation roles across U.S. and Europe.
Outlook
For the quarter ending November 2025, Accenture expects the revenue to grow in the range of 1% to 5% in local currency or $18.10 billion to $18.75 billion, higher than the market estimate of $18.51 billion. For FY 2026, the company projects revenue growth between 2% and 5% in local currency (3% and 6% excluding U.S. federal headwinds) augmented by robust growth in cloud, security, and industry-specific solutions. Adjusted earning is expected at $13.52 to $13.90 per share, implying growth of 5% to 8% y-o-y. Free cash flow is guided at $9.8–$10.5 billion, with a commitment to return at least $9.3 billion to shareholders in FY 2026 in form of dividends and share repurchases. Capital expenditure is estimated to be $1 billion for the year, while the annual effective tax rate is anticipated to be between 23.5% and 25.5%.
Conclusion
Accenture FY 2025 results demonstrate resilience with decent revenue growth, solid cash generation, and robust shareholder returns, despite margin pressures and workforce restructuring weighing on investor sentiment. The FY 2026 guidance signals caution amid macro uncertainty, but the company’s deliberate pivot from legacy roles to AI-first work has the potential to be transformative if executed well. The success of its workforce realignment and its ability to scale next-generation AI-driven solutions will be pivotal in navigating near-term challenges while sustaining long-term growth. That said, investors are likely to closely monitor the company’s sizable bet on automation- and adaptability-led AI solutions as a determinant of future performance.