Accenture's margin jumped 3.7 points. 3.5 of them were last year's severance charge.

Every figure below was read from Accenture's fourth-quarter and fiscal 2026 earnings release, furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K yesterday (accession 0001467373-26-000037), or from the earlier filings cited with their accessions. Outlook figures are Accenture's own and are labelled as company guidance. We show no analyst estimates and no consensus, because they are not filed, and nothing from the conference call, which is not a filing either. Ratios and sums Accenture does not print are our arithmetic on filed values and are marked (Ours.) The 10-K for the year is not filed yet; where only the 10-K can answer, we say so. Research, not investment advice.

Accenture reported yesterday, and the numbers that travelled were three filed ones: operating margin up from 11.6% to 15.3%, GAAP EPS up 46%, and revenue of $18.68 billion above the top of the guided range. All three are in the exhibit. So is a reconciliation table three pages further down, and a cash flow statement two pages after that. Read with those, the quarter looks different, and the story underneath it is less about AI than about the balance sheet.

If you are here for a view on the stock, this is the wrong page. This is the filing.

1. The 3.7 points, reconciled

Filed, Q4 operating income:

The fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 carried $615 million of "business optimization costs", described in the footnote as "primarily for employee severance". That charge took 3.5 points off last year's margin and $0.78 off its EPS. This year's fourth quarter has none. Against the adjusted base, which is the like-for-like comparison, the margin is up 0.2 points and EPS is up 9%. The release says so itself, in the EPS section: "GAAP diluted EPS increased 9% over adjusted EPS."

(Ours.) Operating income rose 7.4% against the adjusted base, on revenue up 6%. That is a good quarter. It is not a 40% quarter.

Accenture's own EPS bridge, from $3.03 to $3.29, attributes $0.22 to higher revenue and operating results, $0.13 to a lower share count and $0.03 to a lower tax rate, and takes away $0.11 for "lower non-operating income". Half the $0.26 increase is the buyback. (Ours.) Section 3 is about where the money for that came from.

2. Bookings grew slower than revenue

Filed, Q4 new bookings of $22.17 billion, up 4% in dollars and 5% in local currency, book-to-bill 1.2. Revenue grew 6% in dollars and 7% in local currency.

Consulting is the line most of yesterday's AI debate was about. In the quarter it booked about as much as it billed. For the year, consulting bookings were $40.86 billion with a book-to-bill of 1.1, and total bookings $84.54 billion, up 5% in dollars and 3% in local currency. The third quarter, from the earlier release (0001467373-26-000031), had bookings of $19.32 billion, down 2%.

A booking is not a backlog. The third-quarter 10-Q (0001467373-26-000032) says remaining performance obligations were "approximately $38 billion" at 31 May, and explains the gap: "The majority of our contracts are terminable by the client on short notice with little or no termination penalties, and some without notice," and "a significant portion of what we consider contract bookings is not included in our remaining performance obligations." The 31 August RPO waits for the 10-K.

3. Where the cash went, and the bonds that paid for it

This is the part the headline does not touch. Filed, fiscal 2026 cash flow statement:

(Ours.) Buybacks, dividends and acquisitions add up to $16.45 billion, against $11.62 billion of free cash flow. The $4.83 billion gap is almost exactly the $4.98 billion of new debt. The release's headline figure, "a record $11.5 billion" returned to shareholders, on its own, is 99% of free cash flow. It was the acquisitions on top that needed the borrowing.

The debt is a single deal. A Form 8-K filed 10 July (0001193125-26-300813) records Accenture Capital Inc. closing $4.997 billion of notes, guaranteed by Accenture plc:

(Ours.) The fixed-rate series carry $242.4 million a year of coupon before the floating tranche. The balance sheet shows long-term debt of $9,999 million at 31 August against $5,034 million a year earlier. Interest expense for the year was $303.4 million against $228.6 million, and the fourth quarter's $103.8 million compares with $70.6 million in the third quarter (10-Q). (Ours: +47% quarter on quarter, with only about seven weeks of the new notes in it.) That is most of the "lower non-operating income" in the EPS bridge, and a full year of these coupons is still ahead.

The filed fact stands on its own: Accenture now pays 4.75% to 5.60% on money it used, in part, to repurchase its own shares.

Two smaller cash items, both filed. Q4 operating cash flow was $3.10 billion, against $3.91 billion a year earlier, mostly because "change in assets and liabilities/other" added $2 million against $1,266 million. Days services outstanding rose to 50 from 47. Fourth-quarter share purchases of $2.33 billion were 82% of the quarter's $2.85 billion free cash flow. (Ours.)

4. Acquisitions, goodwill, and a new liability line

Filed, balance sheet: goodwill $26,819 million against $22,536 million, an increase of $4,283 million. (Ours.) Purchases of businesses were $1.94 billion in the fourth quarter alone. A line that did not exist a year ago, redeemable noncontrolling interests, $533 million, now sits between liabilities and equity. Which deals created it, and on what terms the minority holders can require Accenture to acquire their stakes, waits for the 10-K: search the business-combinations note for "redeemable".

5. Headcount, and the only AI sentence in the exhibit

The 10-Q gives the workforce as approximately 779,000 at 31 August 2025 and 799,000 at 31 May 2026. Yesterday's release, in its "About Accenture" paragraph, says "approximately 814,000 people". (Ours: +35,000 in a year, +4.5%, against revenue up 6% in dollars; +15,000 in the fourth quarter alone.) Whatever AI is doing to consulting demand, it is not yet visible as a smaller Accenture.

The release contains no AI revenue or AI bookings figure. Any count of AI engagements quoted yesterday came from the call, not the filing. The one AI sentence in the exhibit is in the forward-looking-statements paragraph, and it changed. In June's third-quarter release (0001467373-26-000031) it read: AI "could harm the company's business, damage its reputation or give rise to legal or regulatory action." Yesterday's reads: AI "could harm the company's business, including by reducing demand for our services or if AI investments fail to achieve anticipated benefits, damage our reputation or give rise to legal or regulatory action."

Accenture added two specific ways AI could hurt it, in the same release in which its chief executive noted a new high of 141 quarterly bookings of $100 million or more. We read nothing into it beyond the words. Whether the 10-K's Item 1A carries the same addition, and with what supporting paragraph, is the first diff to run when it lands.

6. The regions, and the outlook

Filed, Q4 operating income by geography, against last year's adjusted figures:

Asia Pacific revenue grew 7% in local currency and 3% in dollars, and its operating income fell by a sixth. The release gives no reason. Waits for the 10-K segment discussion.

Company guidance, fiscal 2027: local-currency revenue growth of 3% to 6%; operating margin 15.9% to 16.1%; GAAP EPS $14.39 to $14.81; free cash flow $11.0 to $11.8 billion; capex $900 million; and capital return of "at least $9.5 billion", against $11.5 billion in fiscal 2026. First quarter revenue: $18.95 to $19.60 billion, 2% to 6% in local currency. (Ours: the capital-return floor is about 81% to 86% of the guided free cash flow range, against 99% this year. The filing does not say why the floor is lower.)

Run it yourself

Start with the reconciliation, because it takes one line. On /financials/ACN, find the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 and add back the $615 million business-optimisation charge before you compare any margin. /earnings/ACN carries the quarterly series, and /filings/ACN takes you to yesterday's 8-K and the 10 July notes 8-K. When the 10-K lands, three searches close what is open here: "remaining performance obligations", "redeemable", and "advanced AI" in Item 1A.

/valuation/ACN lets you run your own valuation on filed numbers, with interest expense at the new run rate rather than last year's. /holders/ACN shows the last filed institutional ownership; Form 13F for 30 September is not due until mid-November, so that picture is still 30 June. Then write down what you expect, and let Thesis Monitor read each new filing against it: consulting book-to-bill at 1.0, Asia Pacific margin at 14%, interest expense at $103.8 million a quarter. If you work inside an agent, the same filings are on the EvidInvest MCP server. It is free to start, credit packs from $10, and there is no subscription.

The margin story was last year's severance. The balance-sheet story is this year's bonds.

Sources. Accenture Q4 and FY26 earnings release, Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K furnished 1 October 2026: accession 0001467373-26-000037 (sec.gov). Notes offering 8-K, 10 July 2026: 0001193125-26-300813 (sec.gov). Q3 FY26 10-Q, quarter ended 31 May 2026: 0001467373-26-000032. Q3 FY26 Exhibit 99.1: 0001467373-26-000031. No analyst estimate, consensus figure, price target or call remark appears on this page. Sums, differences, percentages, coupon totals and headcount changes are arithmetic on those filed values, labelled as ours where they appear. Research, not investment advice.