Indian benchmark indices close flat on Friday, Infosys lowers revenue guidance

Key stocks that gained on the BSE Sensex were Axis Bank, GAIL India, HDFC,  ITC Ltd and Sun Pharma while TCS, Infosys, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki were among the laggards.

IT major Infosys, which reported its results for the third quarter ending Dec 31, 2016, posted better-than-expected earnings in a seasonally weak quarter, according to media reports.

However, the company revised its revenue guidance for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017 to 8.4%-8.8% from 8.0%-9.0% in constant currency.

The company also lowered its full year dollar revenue guidance to 7.2-7.6% from 7.5-8.5% earlier and rupee revenue guidance to 10-10.4% from 10.9-11.9%.

Under consolidated results under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, the company reported revenues of Rs 17,273 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, with QoQ decline of 0.2% in INR terms and decline of 0.3% in constant currency terms. But YoY growth was 8.6% in INR terms and 7.3% in constant currency terms

Net profit for the reported period was Rs 3,708 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, with QoQ growth of 2.8% and YoY growth was 7.0%.

Nine month year-on-year revenues grew 11.9% in INR terms and 9.4% in constant currency, the company reported.

LTM revenues crossed $ 10 bn.

The third quarter operating margins expanded 0.2% to 25.1% and net margins expanded 0.6% to 21.5% sequentially

In the same period,  EPS grew 2.8% sequentially and 7.0% year-on-year

The company said that its attrition declined sequentially by 0.8% on standalone basis and 1.6% on consolidated basis.

In dollar terms, revenue fell for first time in last seven quarters due to RBS deal cancellation and seasonal weakness.

"Taking into account seasonal and other additional headwinds for the quarter, our Q3 revenue performance was broadly in line with our expectations," said Vishal Sikka, CEO and MD.

He said, "Beyond the quarterly numbers, we continue to focus sharply on the execution of our strategy, as reflected in the growing embrace of AI-based automation, growth in our new software-led business, delivering innovation, both incremental & breakthrough and fostering a learning-led culture. Our annual client survey results show highest customer satisfaction since we started the survey 12 years ago and increased adoption of Zero Distance and lowered attrition, especially amongst top performers – these are some of the key indicators of the growing creative confidence of Infoscions."

“In a seasonally soft quarter, our utilization has remained healthy,” said U B Pravin Rao, COO.

“Our continued efforts to improve employee engagement and experience resulted in a reduction in attrition. During the quarter, we added 77 clients and also added 2 clients in the $ 75mn+ revenue category. I would like to congratulate all stakeholders on crossing the $ 10 bn revenue milestone on LTM basis," said Rao.

“Our ongoing focus on operational efficiencies has enabled us to keep YTD operating margins at similar levels for the same period last year”, said M.D. Ranganath, CFO, “Our cash generation during the quarter was strong.”

Image: Infosys Twitter