(BFM Bourse) – The digital services company shows the biggest drop in the CAC 40 this Thursday, penalized by its American counterpart Accenture, which has lowered its sales forecast for 2024.
For several quarters, several groups in the digital services sector have been experiencing a slowdown in demand from their customers, who are cutting back on their IT spending.
This is the case of the American giant Accenture, which has reduced its revenue forecast for the fiscal year 2023-2024, ending in late August, citing an “uncertain macroeconomic environment”. The IT services provider now expects growth between 1% to 3% of its revenues at constant exchange rates, compared to a previous forecast of 2% to 5%.
The American consulting giant also announced that it expects adjusted earnings per share to be between $11.97 and $12.20, compared to a previous range of $11.97 to $12.32.
This revision comes as the company reported sales below market expectations at the end of its second quarter ended in late February. Accenture posted revenue of $15.80 billion, where the LSEG Refinitiv consensus had expected sales of $15.84 billion.
For the third quarter, revenue outlook disappoints markets. Accenture expects to achieve sales between $16.25 billion and $16.85 billion, which is also below analysts’ expectations of $17.01 billion.
In Wall Street, this revenue warning does not please the market, which does not hesitate to punish this misstep. Accenture’s stock plunges by 8.5%, dragging its French counterpart Capgemini down with it.
Rising for most of the morning, Capgemini’s stock suddenly plummeted after the announcement of Accenture’s profit warning. At the bottom of the CAC 40, the stock is down 3.2% around 4:40 pm.
A more dynamic 2025 than 2024
Therefore, the French digital services company is suffering from an unfavorable cross-reading on the Paris stock exchange. But unlike Accenture, Capgemini had reassured about its prospects during the annual accounts presentation last February.
Its CEO, Aiman Ezzat, had then stated that the group would experience a low in its activity in the first quarter of 2024, followed by a “progressive” improvement starting from the second quarter to achieve a “robust” exit rate in the fourth quarter of 2024. This will prepare the business for a rebound in 2025, he added.
He also reassured about the activity in North America, a very sensitive area where the demand for Capgemini’s services experienced a significant slowdown at the end of the 2023 fiscal year.
“It is starting to become a bit more positive. I am not saying that the first quarter will mark an improvement, but we see more positive signals in the decision cycle of clients in the pipeline. We expect an improvement in the second quarter and then an acceleration in the second half,” Aiman Ezzat developed. “We are really entering the trough of the slowdown in the United States,” the CEO added then.
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2024 BFM Bourse
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