Cognizant quarterly results beat expectations, appoints new CEO

(Reuters) - Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp on Wednesday beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly results, benefiting from higher spending by clients in the healthcare and financial industries.

The company also said Francisco D'Souza, its chief executive officer since 2007, will give up the role to become executive vice chairman. Brian Humphries, CEO of Vodafone Business, will replace D'Souza, effective April 1.

Before joining Vodafone in 2017, Humphries was a senior executive at companies including Dell and Hewlett Packard.

While services to big banks remain its biggest source of income, revenue from the sector rose just 1.7 percent to $1.45 billion in the quarter. Its healthcare services revenue grew nearly 7 percent, adding $1.20 billion to the total revenue.

The company competes with Accenture as well as with major Indian IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys.

Cognizant reported net income of $648 million, or $1.12 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a net loss of $18 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier

Excluding items, the consulting and outsourcing services provider earned $1.13 per share, beating the average analyst estimate of $1.07 per share.

Revenue rose to $4.13 billion from $3.83 billion and narrowly beat the average analyst estimate of $4.11 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)