Consulting and outsourcing company Accenture raised its full-year revenue growth forecast for the second time as it won more business, mainly in its outsourcing unit, from companies looking to cut costs.

The company also reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue on Thursday, helped by growth in outsourcing revenue from North American clients.

Accenture’s shares rose 3 per cent in premarket trading on Thursday.

Revenue in the company’s outsourcing business, which accounts for almost half its total revenue, rose 6 per cent in US dollar terms in the second quarter, while revenue in its consulting business grew 4 per cent.

Accenture said it expected revenue to grow 8-10 per cent on a local-currency basis in the year ending August.

The company had raised its revenue growth forecast to 5-8 per cent in December from 4-7 per cent it forecast initially.

Accenture, however, cut the top end of its full-year earnings forecast range, saying it expected the negative impact of a strong dollar to be higher than previously anticipated.

Accenture, which gets a little more than half of its revenue from outside North America, narrowed its profit forecast range to $4.66-$4.76 per share from $4.66-$4.80.

The company’s net income rose to $743.2 million, or $1.08 per share, in the quarter ended February 28th from $722.3 million, or $1.03 per share, a year earlier.

Net revenue rose 5 per cent to $7.49 billion.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.07 per share and revenue of $7.38 billion.

Reuters