Bangalore: Infosys on Friday reported better- than-expected profit growth of 28.6 percent for the second quarter and cheered investors by announcing bonus shares - the third time since it went public over two decades ago.
The free shares and a higher Rs 30 per share dividend has been announced two months into the tenure of Vishal Sikka, the first outsider and non-founder to head the country's second largest IT services firm.
Consolidated net profit for the city-based firm rose to Rs 3,096 crore in the July-September quarter, 2014-15, from Rs 2,407 crore in the year-ago period.
Helped by higher sales in North America and Europe, the company's Q2 revenue was up 2.9 percent to Rs 13,342 crore.
Infosys maintained its forecast for the full-year sales growth at 7-9 percent in US dollar terms.
Buoyed by a strong set of numbers, the company declared an interim dividend of Rs 30 per equity share as compared to Rs 20 in the previous year.
It has also recommended a bonus issue of one equity share for every equity share held and a bonus issue of a stock dividend of one American Depositary Share (ADS) for every ADS held, respectively.
"Digital transformation is reshaping the business of every one of our clients. We see this as a great opportunity to help them renew the core of their business as well as to expand into new frontiers and are seeing early positive results," Infosys CEO and Managing Director Vishal Sikka said.
He added that the company's strategy is to apply the same principles to its own business in order to capture this opportunity and accelerate growth.
"We have been able to improve our margins during the quarter and feel confident of sustaining these within a narrow band," Infosys CFO Rajiv Bansal said. "This is giving us increased confidence to make the investments required to meet our growth aspirations."
Buoyed by a strong set of numbers, Infosys shares rose by 6.68 per cent to settle at Rs 3,888.95 apiece on the BSE.
For entire 2014-15 fiscal, the country's second-largest software services firm maintained its revenues guidance of 7-9 per cent growth.
In dollar terms, the NYSE-listed firm's net profits grew 33.4 percent to USD 511 million in second quarter of this fiscal from USD 383 million in the year-ago period.
Revenues rose by 6.5 percent to USD 2.2 billion in Q2, from USD 2.07 billion in the year-ago period.
"Digital transformation is reshaping the business of every one of our clients. We see this as a great opportunity to help them renew the core of their business as well as to expand into new frontiers and are seeing early positive results," Sikka said.
He added that the company's strategy is to apply the same principles to its own business in order to capture this opportunity and accelerate growth.
"We have been able to improve our margins during the quarter and feel confident of sustaining these within a narrow band," Bansal said.
Infosys and its subsidiaries added 49 clients during the quarter.
The company made a gross addition of 14,255 employees (net addition of 4,127) in Q2, taking its total headcount to 1,65,411 as of September 30, 2014.
The company's attrition level was higher at 20.1 percent during the quarter, compared to 19.5 percent in the April- June period.
