NEW YORK (Bloomberg) - Accenture Ltd., the world's second-largest technology-consulting firm, fell the most in five months after cutting its 2009 profit and sales forecasts.

Revenue will rise four percent at most this year, down from a December forecast of as much as 10 percent, Accenture said on Thursday in a statement. Profit will be $2.60 to $2.67 a share, compared with its previous outlook of at least $2.78.

Consulting bookings fell 17 percent in the quarter ended February 28 as the recession curbed customers' technology spending. Accenture said new bookings this year will be $23 billion to $25 billion, less than its December forecast and down as much as 14 percent from fiscal 2008. Industry consolidation in financial services also hurt the company, CEO Bill Green said on Thursday on a conference call.

"Some of the clients we had last year don't exist anymore," Mr. Green said.

Accenture, based in Hamilton, Bermuda, declined $3.84, or 12 percent, to $28.12 at 9:42am in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest drop since October. The stock had lost 2.5 percent this year before Friday.

Third-quarter consulting bookings fell to $3.14 billion from $3.79 billion a year earlier, the company said.

"Consulting is discretionary," Jamie Friedman, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group in New York, said yesterday. "It's a great thing to have, but it's the first thing to go when you don't have better visibility on your own business."

Friedman rates the shares "neutral". Of 23 analysts who follow Accenture, 17 recommend buying the stock and six rate it "hold".

Net income in the third quarter rose to $411.4 million, or 63 cents a share, from $406.6 million, or 64 cents, a year earlier. Sales dropped 6.6 percent to $5.66 billion, hurt partly by currency-exchange fluctuations.

In a bright spot, Accenture reported a 7.2 percent increase in outsourcing orders in the period to $2.84 billion as more companies farmed out work to shrink budgets during the economic slump.