Accenture has reported its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2023, ended February 28, 2023. Revenues increased at a constant five percent year-on-year to $15.8bn, reflecting an approximate negative four percent foreign-exchange impact to the US dollar.
New bookings for the quarter reached a record 13 percent increase YoY, totaling $22.1bn. Consulting and managed services bookings valued $10.7bn and $11.4bn respectively.
A jump in health and public service industry deals contributed to the revenue increase, rising 13 percent YoY in the quarter to $3.02bn. Communications, media and technology and financial services revenues also increased by four and five percent, to $2.88bn and $3bn respectively.
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Accenture’s operating margin was 12.3 percent for the quarter, falling by 1.4 percent YoY. GAAP operating income also decreased six percent YoY, to $1.94bn.
In response to market conditions, Accenture has also announced it is beginning actions to streamline operations and reduce costs. The firm is to cut 19,000 jobs over the next 18 months in what will be the largest number across the consulting sector so far, costing $1.2bn in severance costs and $300m in office consolidation fees.
The company took on over 230,000 staff since 2020 in a hiring boom, but now, the upcoming cuts will see 2.6 percent of Accenture’s 738,000 total employees leave the fold.
In the company earnings call, Accenture chair and CEO, Julie Sweet, said: “Our strong financial results this quarter again demonstrate that our ability to bring together industry, functional and technology expertise as well as managed services continues to differentiate us with our clients. Our record bookings reflect the confidence and trust that our clients have in us to create value and help them transform at speed.
“We’ve been dealing with the challenges of compounding wage inflation. We’ve been doing that with pricing, but we’ve also been doing that with cost efficiencies and digitization and we’ve identified an opportunity to go after structural cost. We are also taking steps to lower our costs in fiscal year 2024 and beyond while continuing to invest in our business and our people to capture the significant growth opportunities ahead.”
For the full fiscal year, Accenture is now predicting revenue growth in the range of 8-10 percent in local currency, and assumes an approximate negative 4.5 percent impact on its US dollar results due to the foreign-exchange.
