TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, Wipro, TechM: Key takeaways from Accenture Q1 results

IT stocks such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd (TechM) are in focus on Friday after Accenture reported an organic revenue growth of 5 per cent in constant currency (CC) terms in the first quarter, beating consensus estimates and coming in close to the top end of its quarterly guidance. For FY26, the IT major retained its organic YoY CC growth outlook of 0.5–3.5 per cent, saying the overall spending remains consistent with last year, with no macro catalyst yet. 

"That said, we believe the groundwork for the next AI services cycle is gradually starting. Client conversations are increasingly shifting from experimentation to readiness, focused on cleaning up data, modernising platforms, and securing systems so AI can be deployed at scale," MOFSL said.

The domestic brokerage said AI services demand could begin to improve from mid-2026 as hardware-led AI capex intensity moderates and spending gradually shifts toward software, platforms, and services. The March-April 2026 budget reset period may serve as an initial indicators, it said.

AI services revenue for TCS has reached a scale of $1.5 billion or 5 per cent of FY26 estimated revenue against $2.7 billion for Accenture (4 per cent of revenue) in FY25 and $0.4 billion (3 per cent of revenue) for HCL Tech, ICICI Securities noted.

"With outsourcing revenue and bookings seeing continued stability, the readthrough for Indian IT is of stability and no significant demand deterioration," it said.

JM Financial said the acceleration in managed services revenues is a positive read-through for Indian IT services players. The large digital and data core modernisation opportunity and the subsequent industry-specific solutioning, process redesign, and ongoing optimisation and upgrades via managed services, would supports a long runway of work and sustained relevance for Indian IT services vendors, it said.

Accenture also noted improved pricing across several pockets of the business, which is seen as incrementally positive for Indian IT services players.

"We remain constructive on the sector, with risk-reward still favourable, although the c.9 per cent up-move over the past two months in Indian IT stocks suggests some positives are already priced in. This makes execution against elevated expectations key," it said.

"We view the results as overall neutral for Indian IT. We remain positive on the sector from a medium to long-term perspective, anticipating a recovery in macro and AI adoption to accelerate enterprise tech spending," Nuvama said. 

For Q1, Accenture reported outsourcing bookings of $11.06 billion, up 17 per cent YoY, while consulting bookings rose 7.2 per cent YoY at $9.9 billion. The book-to-bill ratio came in at 1.1 times in 1QFY26, in line with the average of 1.2 times over the past four quarters.

Accenture's consulting revenue grew 3 per cent CC YoY while Managed Services (Outsourcing) rose 7 per cent CC YoY.