Wipro Q1 net profit up 18.37%; muted guidance pulls down stock

The company's Q1 net profit was Rs 1,580.20 crore, as against against Rs 1,334.9 crore in the year-ago period.

However, a flat IT services revenue growth guidance of USD 1.52-1.55 billion for the July-September quarter pulled the company's stock down by over 4 per cent to Rs 341 on the BSE. Later it recovered to Rs 346, but still down 3 per cent.

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said that despite significant headwinds and volatile demand, revenues grew in all key geographies, and Europe - which is facing economic trouble - was more resilient than the prevailing sentiment there.

"We continue to see extensive engagement with customers in our new geos and projects, with Brazil looking especially promising," Premji added.

Investors however were concerned with Wipro's guidance on IT services revenues -- 0.3-2.3 per cent sequential growth.

"The guidance looks decent (still lower than our estimate of 1-3 per cent (q-o-q) after continuous disappointments since last couple of quarters," Angel Broking Research Analyst (IT) Ankita Somani said.

Wipro's IT services revenue, which accounted for 78 per cent of the total revenues, grew 30 per cent year-on-year in rupee terms to Rs 8,314 crore in Q1.

However, in dollar terms it was impacted by USD 25 million of cross currency impact and was USD 1.51 billion, a year-on-year increase of eight per cent.

On constant currency basis, IT services revenue in dollar terms was within the company's guidance of USD 1.54 billion. "IT services business delivered sequential growth in line with our guidance," Premji said. MORE