NEW YORK, Feb 20, 2026, 06:24 EST — Premarket
- Shares of Accenture dropped 3.9% on Thursday, deepening a selloff that’s dragged the stock well below last year’s peak.
- Some senior staff promotions at the company now hinge on consistent use of its internal AI tools, according to a report.
- U.S. inflation numbers land Friday, while Accenture heads into its March 19 earnings call.
Accenture (ACN) grabbed attention in premarket action Friday after dropping 3.9% on Thursday. Shares finished the session at $214.95, leaving them roughly 45% under the 52-week high. Trading was busier than normal, and the decline outpaced losses at both IBM and Cognizant. (MarketWatch)
Accenture sits at the heart of corporate tech and consulting budgets, which is why the move carries weight. When investors worry about companies pulling back on nonessential spending, this is usually the name they hit first.
The stock finds itself caught between two rarely aligned forces: upbeat talk from companies on artificial intelligence, and finance chiefs pulling back on spending.
Accenture is now tracking employees’ use of its AI tools while weighing senior promotions, the Irish Times reported, pointing to details from an internal email. The company emphasized—per the report—that adopting the newest tools and tech is necessary to best serve clients. (The Irish Times)
Wall Street slipped on Thursday, with the major indexes ticking lower as investors digested a batch of mixed economic numbers and Walmart’s cautious outlook for the coming year. Oil prices gained on fresh tensions with Iran, adding another layer to the day’s worries. “Today (investors are) weighing some of the economic data and what Walmart’s earnings are saying in terms of the consumer,” said Chuck Carlson, CEO at Horizon Investment Services. Market players were also eyeing Friday’s release of the Commerce Department’s Personal Consumption Expenditures report, a closely watched inflation metric. (Reuters)
Accenture’s slide comes as software and services stocks continue to trail. The group is lagging the S&P 500 by almost 24 percentage points over the last three months—a gap that Reuters says is among the widest in decades, according to its analysis earlier this month. (Reuters)
Several strategists argue the selloff has overshot. “The market is pricing in worst-case AI disruption scenarios that are unlikely to materialize over the next three to six months,” wrote Dubravko Lakos-Bujas and his team at JPMorgan in a note, according to Reuters. (Reuters)
The risk is straightforward here: clients have room to hit the brakes on hiring or push back less critical projects, particularly if rates don’t come down soon. Back in December, Accenture’s outlook for second-quarter revenue landed below what Wall Street was looking for, Reuters noted, prompting shares to slide ahead of the open after that announcement. (Reuters)
Investors now want to see if Accenture’s AI narrative actually turns into bookings and top-line gains. Bookings, basically the total value of new contracts, are a key signal for future revenue—and they’ll be scrutinized for any indication of a shift.
Accenture lines up its second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call for 8:00 a.m. EST on March 19. Markets are zeroed in on what management says about guidance, plus any fresh signals on enterprise spending as the spring budget cycle approaches. (Accenture)
