Profit Jumps at Accenture

Accenture(ACN Quote) beat the Street's second-quarter expectations and guided higher for the rest of its fiscal year.

The information technology services company said Tuesday that net income for the quarter ended Feb. 28 rose to $408 million, or 47 cents a share, from $102.3 million, or 11 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue excluding reimbursements rose to $4.75 billion from $4.1 billion a year ago.

A Thomson Financial survey of analysts had expected, on average, that the company would earn 42 cents a share on $4.69 billion in revenue.

Consulting and outsourcing revenue both grew by double digits in U.S. dollars, Accenture said.

For its current third quarter, Accenture expects revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion, above analysts' expectation of $4.87 billion.

For the full year, Accenture said it now expects revenue growth will be at the high end of its current estimate of 9% to 12% in local currency.

EPS is now expected to be $1.88 to $1.93, up from its previous range of $1.80 to $1.85.

Analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.87 a share on revenue of $18.82 billion for fiscal 2007.

Shares of Accenture rose 2.3% in after-hours trading to $37.04.