Not only did Cognizant beat Infosys in terms of revenues on a full year basis, it exceeded the Bengaluru-based company in most of the operating parameters as well.
During the last four quarters, the Nasdaq-listed company reported $7.655 billion in revenue, $255 million more than that of Infosys during this period.
Cognizant follows a January-December financial year.
The sequential (quarter on quarter) increase of revenues at 3.7 per cent, as reported by Cognizant, was the best when compared with the top four Indian IT services companies.
It improved the operating margins by about 20 basis points (bps) at 19.9 per cent, whereas the Indian peers reported margin decline during the quarter.
On a net basis, the company added 6,000 people on its rolls, the second highest addition by any offshore-centric IT services company after TCS.
“By establishing themselves as a second largest offshore-centric IT services company, Cognizant will always get a greater profile from the analysts and shareholders.
“They will always get greater endorsement and the expectations will also go up,” said Kumar Parakala, partner and head of IT Advisory for KPMG in Europe, Middle East, Africa and India region.
In the quarter ended March 31, Cognizant reported a 17 per cent growth in its net profit at $284 million, compared with the corresponding quarter last year.
The revenues at $2.02 billion ($2,020 million) grew 18.1 per cent on a year-on-year basis, backed by strong growth of key verticals, including financial services, manufacturing, retail and logistics.
On a sequential quarter basis (when compared with the previous quarter), the net profit grew two per cent and revenues 3.7 per cent.
“Our performance during the first quarter was strong, and we are encouraged by the healthy demand for our broad range of services,” said Francisco D’Souza,
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