Saturday, August 2, 2008

Cognizant Technology Solutions Reported A 26% Growth - Aug 02, 2008

CHENNAI: Cognizant Technology Solutions has reported a 26% growth in its net profit on the back of higher revenues. At the same time, the company lowered its guidance for the second half of the year by at least 5%, taking into account the impact of a slowing economy on its customers.

The Nasdaq-listed IT and BPO services provider posted a net profit of $103.9 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2008 compared to $82.3 million during the same period last year. “Several of our business segments, including financial services, performed well during the quarter. We generated strong performance across Europe and healthy growth from our BPO/KPO and IT infrastructure services as a result of clients focussing on cost efficiencies,” Cognizant president and CEO Francisco D’Souza said.

The company’s revenues went up 33% to $685.4 million from $516.5 million during the same period last year. Sequentially, its revenues were up 6.6%. However, growth might slow down to 5.5% in the next quarter, which is next only to Infosys, which has guided 5.2-6.1%. It is higher than Wipro’s 2.0% and Satyam’s 1.3-2.3%. TCS does not give guidance. IT companies have been hit by a slowdown in US, its biggest technology market. This came on top of a depreciating dollar that dented the margins of IT companies last year.

“As we look forward, we also anticipate slower growth within the payor segment of healthcare, largely driven by one of our top five clients in the payor sector, who has informed us of plans to scale back spending significantly in Q3, Q4,” added Mr D’Souza.

Cognizant has lowered its revenue outlook for the remainder of the year to $2.81 billion, down by at least 5% from $ 2.95 billion.

“Although we are disappointed with the necessity of reducing our outlook for the second half of the year due to the weakening econ-omy, we are pleased to continue our expectation of industry leading growth and a healthy long-term outlook for the business,” said chief financial and operating officer Gordon Coburn.

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