Maintaining its lead over
Infosys for the second quarter in a row,
Cognizant on Wednesday posted 18.2 per cent growth in revenue to $1.892 billion in the July-September 2012 quarter.
The Nasdaq-listed firm's net profit jumped 22 per cent at $276.9 million for the same quarter from $227.1 million in the corresponding period last year.
In the April-June quarter this year, Cognizant had registered higher revenues ($1.79 billion) than Infosys ($1.75 billion).
Country's second largest software exporter Infosys has reported revenues of $1.79 billion in the July-September 2012 quarter, while net profit stood at $431 million.
"We are pleased that our growth was broad-based across services and geographies," Cognizant President Gordon Coburn said in a statement.
Newer service offerings of consulting, BPO and IT infrastructure services have been growing materially faster than company average and comprised nearly 20 per cent of total revenue this quarter, he added.
"They will continue to be important drivers of our long-term growth as each represents a large addressable market with low penetration of the global delivery model," Coburn said.
Cognizant, which met its guidance of at least $.875 billion revenues in July-September 2012 quarter, expects its October-December quarter revenue to be at least $1.94 billion.
It has maintained its outlook for FY12 revenue to be at least $7.34 billion (up at least 20 per cent compared to 2011).
Unlike Indian IT firms, Cognizant follows a January- December financial year. Though Cognizant is not listed in India, three-fourth of its over 1.50 lakh employees are based in India and is often referred to as an Indian entity.
Given the strong performance by Cognizant and the bullish annual revenue outlook, it may remain ahead of Infosys, which has given a muted guidance of 5 per cent growth for the financial year, citing uncertain global environment.
Infosys, which has stopped it practice of giving quarterly guidance, expects its dollar revenue in FY13 to be at least $7.34 billion.
"Cognizant's strong results reaffirm the acceptance of our value proposition that helps clients address the dual mandate of driving efficiency and effectiveness in their core business while investing in innovation and business transformation for long-term growth," Cognizant
Chief Executive Officer Francisco D'Souza said.
The consulting-led approach, intimate client relationships, deep domain knowledge and robust execution gives Cognizant the confidence to deliver revenue growth of at least 20 per cent in 2012, he added.
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