Accenture Plc's fourth-quarter revenue and profit beats Wall St estimates

Accenture has spent about $3.4 bn over last three years - nearly half of it in fiscal 2017 - on 70 acquisitions, to boost its digital, cloud services in order to compete better with Cognizant, IBM

Accenture Plc's fourth-quarter revenue and profit beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday as investments in its fast-growing digital and cloud services businesses paid off.

Shares of the consulting and outsourcing services company were marginally up in premarket trading.

Revenue from its digital, cloud and security-related services, which the company terms as "the New", made up more than 60 percent of total revenue.

Accenture has spent about $3.4 billion over the last three years - nearly half of it in fiscal 2017 - on some 70 acquisitions, to boost its digital and cloud services in order to compete better with Cognizant and IBM.

Net income attributable to the company rose to $1.03 billion, or $1.58 per share, from $932.5 million, or $1.48 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Aug. 31, a year earlier. [nBwbS70QDa]

Its profit beat the average analyst estimate of $1.56 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net revenue rose to $10.15 billion, ahead of estimates of $10.01 billion.

Accenture, however forecast full-year profit between $6.98 per share to $7.25 per share, below analyst estimate of $7.28 per share.

The company also said its board approved an additional share repurchase program of $5 billion.