Grid Dynamics Holdings Inc

Shares of IT consulting and business-services firms rallied after Accenture reported stronger-than-expected results and an above-consensus fiscal 2027 outlook. Accenture guided fiscal 2027 revenue growth of 3%–6% following a Q4 revenue beat of roughly $18.7B, easing fears that AI would hollow out traditional consulting and outsourcing demand. The read-across lifted EPAM 6.8%, DXC 5.7%, Everforth 11.7%, EXL 6.2%, and Grid Dynamics 8%, with Cognizant, IBM, Salesforce, and Indian IT ADRs Infosys and Wipro also gaining. Separately, IBM announced a self-hosted deployment option for IBM Bob aimed at enterprise AI sovereignty and governance, letting enterprises run AI-driven software delivery and modernization inside customer-controlled environments including on-premises, sovereign clouds, private clouds, and air-gapped setups. IBM also expanded its IBM Bob Premium Package for Z with that self-hosted capability and deeper application intelligence tools, targeting mainframe modernization under strict compliance and data-sovereignty standards.

IT services and consulting stocks tracked by the publication fell an average of 18% since their latest earnings reports, even as first-quarter revenues broadly met analyst expectations. IBM led the group with revenue of 15.92 billion dollars, up 9.5 percent year on year and beating estimates by 1.3 percent, but its stock still dropped 15.7 percent. Gartner posted revenue of 1.51 billion dollars, down 1.5 percent, while Everforth reported flat revenue of 968.3 million dollars and issued weak guidance that sent its shares down 53.7 percent. Grid Dynamics grew revenue 3.7 percent to 104.1 million dollars and raised its full-year outlook, and EPAM Systems recorded 1.4 billion dollars in revenue, up 7.6 percent, though its stock fell 17.8 percent. Next-quarter revenue guidance for the group came in 2.3 percent below consensus, contributing to the broad share-price declines.