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Investing.com - Accenture tumbled 9.6% in U.S. premarket trading after the IT services giant reported fiscal third-quarter revenue that missed analyst expectations and trimmed the top end of its full-year growth forecast, sending a chill through the global IT services sector that dragged European peer Capgemini down more than 8% in Paris.
The company reported Q3 fiscal 2026 revenues of $18.7 billion, up 6% in U.S. dollar terms but just 3% in local currency, falling short of the $18.78 billion consensus estimate.
Earnings per share of $3.80 beat the $3.72 forecast, rising 9% year-over-year, but the revenue miss was enough to unsettle investors already skittish about the future of traditional IT consulting in an era of generative AI.
The more damaging signal came from guidance. Accenture narrowed its full-year fiscal 2026 revenue growth outlook to 3%-4% in local currency, cutting the top of the prior range of 3%-5%. Stripping out an estimated 1% drag from its U.S. federal business, the company said it expects 4%-5% growth, but that carve-out did little to reassure markets already pricing in structural pressure on IT services demand.
The pain spread quickly across the Atlantic. Capgemini fell 8.4% to €89.42 in Paris, touching a new 52-week low of €89.30 intraday, as investors used Accenture’s results as a read-across for the broader sector. Capgemini has shed roughly 38% over the past year, and Thursday’s move extended that rout to the bottom of its 52-week range.
The two companies are widely viewed as the most direct comparables in global IT services, making any guidance revision from Accenture an immediate catalyst for Capgemini’s valuation. Elsewhere, Cognizant stock dropped 5.8% while Infosys shares slipped 3.2% in U.S. premarket trading. IBM shares were down 2%.
Alongside the earnings release, Accenture announced an agreement to acquire a majority stake in industrial cybersecurity specialist Dragos, plus full ownership of asset-discovery firms runZero and NetRise, at a combined enterprise value of approximately $4.175 billion.
