Accenture Plc (ACN - Analyst Report) is one of world’s leading providers of management consultancy, technology and outsourcing services. The company is steadily gaining traction in its outsourcing business primarily backed by a rise in demand for technology to improve operating efficiency and save costs.
 
Furthermore, considering the growing need for digital marketing, we commend Accenture’s efforts to enhance its digital marketing capabilities through acquisitions which should positively impact fourth-quarter results.
 
However, increasing competition from Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) and International Business Machines (IBM) may temper its growth prospects to some extent. Additionally, Accenture’s broad European exposure and a cautious spending environment are likely to have a negative impact on the to-be-reported quarter results. Due to this, investors are eagerly awaiting Accenture’ earnings report in order to set the record straight and to give some guidance on where this company is heading.

This is especially true given the recent earnings estimate revisions for Accenture as the consensus estimate has been going lower. However, Accenture does have somewhat decent history when it comes to recent earnings reports as the stock has beaten estimates thrice and misses once in the last four quarters, making for an average surprise of approximately 3.74%.

Currently, Accenture has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), but that could definitely change following the company’s earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings: Accenture beats on earnings. Our consensus called for EPS of $1.11 per share, and the company reported EPS of $1.15 per share.

Revenue: Revenues surpassed. Accenture posted revenues of $7.889 billion, compared to our consensus estimate of $7.648 billion.

Key Stats: The company witnessed year over year growth in revenue, primarily aided by an increase in Consulting revenues.
 
1Q16 Outlook: For 1Q16, Accenture expects revenue to be in the range of $7.70 billion to $7.95 billion.