Cognizant Q1 profit declines 6.6% to USD 520 mn

IT firm Cognizant today said its net profit declined 6.6 per cent to USD 520 million for the quarter ended March 2018.

This is against a net profit of USD 557 million, or 92 cents per share, registered by the company in the year-ago period, Cognizant said in a statement.

Its revenues, however, increased 10.3 per cent to USD 3.91 billion in the reported quarter from USD 3.54 billion in the same quarter last year, driven by strong growth across verticals like healthcare and communications, media and technology.

This is within its topline guidance of USD 3.88-3.92 billion for the March quarter.

For the June quarter, Cognizant expects its revenues to be in the range of USD 4-4.04 billion, while for 2018, the topline is forecast to be in the range of USD 16.05-16.3 billion.

"We achieved solid financial results in the first quarter and progressed our shift to digital services and solutions. Cognizant has built the capabilities and scale to help clients digitize their offerings, create personalized customer experiences, instrument their operations, and modernise their IT infrastructure," Cognizant CEO Francisco D'Souza said.

He added that this digital-at-scale value proposition has positioned the company "well to deliver a strong 2018".

At the end of the March 2018 quarter, it had 2,61,400 employees.