Accenture's revenue, profit top estimates on digital services growth

(Reuters) - Accenture Plc's quarterly profit and revenue topped Wall Street targets, as the consulting and outsourcing services provider benefited from investments in digital and cloud services.

Accenture said on Thursday its digital, cloud and security-related services, which it calls "the New," made up more than 55 percent of revenue, a record level.

Accenture has spent more than $3 billion over the last three years - nearly half of it in fiscal 2017 - on some 70 acquisitions, as it boosts its digital and cloud-related offerings to compete better with Cognizant and IBM.

Net income attributable to the company rose to $863.7 million in the second quarter ended Feb. 28 from $838.8 million a year earlier. It reported earnings of $1.37 per share in the latest quarter.

Results included a $137 million charge related to the new U.S. tax code.

Net revenue jumped 15.2 percent to $9.59 billion.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.58 per share.

Analysts on average had expected revenue of $9.31 billion and earnings of $1.49 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Accenture said it expects current-quarter revenue between $9.90 billion and $10.15 billion, easily topping analysts' estimates of $9.68 billion.

The company's shares were down 1.25 percent at $160 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)