The publication of Capgemini's 2024 results led to a sharp fall in the share price when the markets opened. Photo: Shutterstock

The publication of Capgemini's 2024 results led to a sharp fall in the share price when the markets opened. Photo: Shutterstock

Capgemini's full-year results for 2024 were disappointing "in a less favourable environment than expected". While net profit was up by 0.5%, sales were down by 1.9%, as was the operating margin. Since the markets opened, the share price has lost almost 10% of its value.

The group, which specialises in information technology consulting, has reported a 1.9% fall in sales to €22.096bn for its 2024 financial year, with group net profit up 0.5% to €1.671bn. The operating margin was €2.934 billion (-1.9%), the firm stated on 18 February 2025.

Its order book totalled €23.821bn in 2024 and €6.806bn in the fourth quarter, with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.08 for the year and 1.22 for the fourth quarter. Compared with bookings in 2023, this represents, at constant exchange rates, a decline of -0.5% year-on-year and an increase of +1.9% in the fourth quarter. Generative AI bookings accounted for almost 4% of the group's total in 2024, and around 5% in the fourth quarter.

At 31 December 2024, the group had cash and cash management assets totalling €3.1bn, compared with outstanding financial debt of €5.1bn. The group's net debt is €2.1bn, compared with €2bn at the end of 2023.

Cautious forecasts for 2025 disappoint the market

For 2025, although Capgemini says it is banking on the development of generative artificial intelligence technologies to stimulate growth, it remains cautious and is targeting revenue growth at constant exchange rates of between -2.0% and +2.0%, an operating margin of between 13.3% and 13.5% and organic free cash flow generation of around €1.9bn. These forecasts are considered cautious by the market. Results and a vision that have disappointed investors. At the opening of trading on the Paris stock exchange on Tuesday, the share price was down 4.7%. At 11:51am, it was down by 8.7%.

A source of concern for investors, sales have stagnated at around €22bn since 2022, while at the same time the group, which is pursuing a very aggressive external growth strategy, has spent €1.374bn on new acquisitions, without any upward impact on revenues or any improvement in operating profit, which has been falling for three years.

€3.40 gross dividend per share

“Our performance in the fourth quarter is in line with expectations. As anticipated, manufacturing and France experienced strong headwinds, whereas we saw an improvement in financial services and consumer goods & retail, as well as a robust public sector,”  commented CEO Aiman Ezzat in a press release. “The group demonstrated strong resilience in 2024, maintaining its operating margin and free cash flow generation, thanks to the growth of its high value-added offerings as well as its ecosystem of leading technology partners.”

Despite a 1.2% rise in basic earnings per share to €9.82, Capgemini is proposing a stable dividend of €3.40 per share to its shareholders. This represents a total of €580m and a payout ratio of 35%.

At 31 December 2024, the group's total workforce stood at 341,100 (+0.2% year-on-year).

Read the original French-language version of this news report /

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