Persistent sees lower Q1 rev; shares slump over 13%

Persistent Systems shares today slumped over 13 per cent after the IT firm said its dollar revenues for the April-June quarter could be "marginally lower" that the previous three months on weakness in product engineering segment and quarterly variability in IP business.
The company's stock today slumped over 13 per cent to Rs 625.60 a piece on the BSE in late afternoon trade.
Persistent's revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 stood at USD 80.03 million. In the April-June quarter of last year, it had logged revenues of USD 72.66 million.
Persistent said some of the pre-cloud/pre-Internet software product companies, who are its customers are re-organising their business and changing their priorities.

"Consequently, weakness in our current product engineering business coupled with the quarterly variability associated with our IP business, could result in a marginally lower USD revenue for this quarter as compared to the previous quarter," it added.
The company added that it continues to invest in building accelerators and tools for enterprises.
"We have applied for a significantly higher number if H1B visas in this quarter as compared to the corresponding quarter of the last year to cater to the increasing demand for onshore work from the enterprise customers," it said.
These factors would exert a pressure on the company's margins for this quarter, it added.