Accenture raises full-year revenue forecast after strong 1st-quarter

The company said it expects revenue growth of 5-8 percent for the year ending August on a local currency basis, up from the 4-7 percent growth it had estimated earlier.

ACCENTURE (ACN.NY)s shares rose 3.5 percent to $88.25 in premarket trading on Thursday.

The company, however, cut its earnings forecast, citing a larger-than-expected impact from a strong dollar.

Accenture, which gets about 56 percent of its revenue from outside North America, said it expects earnings $4.66-$4.80 per share for the period, down from its previous forecast of $4.74-$4.88.

The company's quarterly results were mainly driven by double-digit percentage growth in its communications, media and technology group and health and public services operation.

Revenue in the outsourcing business rose 11.2 percent to $3.80 billion in U.S. dollar terms, accounting for 48 percent of the company's total net revenue.

Accenture's outsourcing business, which competes with India's Infosys Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services , has faced pricing pressure amid sluggish business spending and stiff competition in the last few quarters.

Revenue in Accenture's consulting business, which competes with Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM Corp , rose 4 percent to $4.09 billion.

Accenture said its net income including non-controlling interests rose to $882.2 million, or $1.29 per diluted share, in the first quarter ended Nov. 30 from $800.9 million, or $1.15 per share, a year earlier.

Net revenue rose to 7.3 percent to $7.90 billion.

Analysts had expected a profit of $1.20 per share on revenue of $7.69 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.

(Reporting By Lehar Maan and Abhirup Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)