Accenture plc (ACN – Analyst Report) reported first-quarter fiscal 2015 earnings per share of $1.29, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.19. On a year-over-year basis, earnings increased 12.2% from $1.15 per share. The year-over-year increase was attributed to higher revenues, higher non-operating income and lower share count.
Revenues and Bookings
Accenture's first-quarter net revenue not only increased 7.3% year over year to $7.89 billion but also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $7.69 billion. Net revenue also beat management's guided range of $7.55 to $7.80 billion, primarily aided by an 11% increase in Outsourcing revenues ($3.80 billion) and a 4% increase in Consulting revenues ($4.09 billion).
Among the operating segments, Communications, media & technology revenues were up 12% on a year-over-year basis to $1.58 billion. Revenues from Health & Public Services increased 11% to $1.37 billion on a year-over-year basis. Revenues from Financial Services and Products increased 7% each on a year-over-year basis to reach $1.72 billion and $1.93 billion, respectively. Revenues from Resources however decreased 1% on a year over year basis and came in at $1.30 billion.
Geographically, revenues from the North Americas and Europe increased 11% and 5%, respectively, while revenues from the Growth Markets (Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Turkey) were up 3% from the year-ago quarter.
Accenture reported new bookings of $7.7 billion during the quarter, which was negatively impacted by foreign currency fluctuations. Consulting bookings and Outsourcing bookings for the quarter amounted to $3.9 billion and $3.8 billion, respectively.
Operating Results
First-quarter gross margin decreased 110 basis points (bps) from the year-ago quarter to 32.2%, primarily due to higher cost of services.
Operating expenses decreased a marginal 0.5% from the year-ago quarter to $1.35 million, primarily due to lower selling, general & administrative expenses. As a percentage of net revenue, operating expenses contracted 140 bps to 17.1% from the year-ago quarter. This in turn positively impacted operating results.
Accenture's operating income came in at $1.19 billion or 15% of net revenue, which increased from $1.09 billion or 14.8% of revenues reported in the year-ago quarter. Accenture reported $882.2 million in net income or $1.29 per share.
