New York: Led by strong growth in healthcare business, IT services major Cognizant Monday notched up a 9.7 percent increase in net profit at USD 382.9 million for the March quarter and also marginally upped its revenue guidance for the 2015 fiscal.
Cognizant's net profit stood at USD 348.9 million in the first quarter of 2014.
The US-based firm saw its revenue grow 20.2 percent to USD 2.91 billion in the reported quarter from USD 2.42 billion in the year-ago period, higher than its own guidance of USD 2.88 billion.
The better-than-expected numbers are in contrast to those from its Indian counterparts like TCS and Infosys that posted muted quarterly earnings impacted by currency fluctuations.
Cognizant has marginally increased its revenue forecast for the fiscal 2015 to be up at least 19.3 percent (to USD 12.24 billion) from its earlier forecast of at least 19 percent growth (USD 12.21 billion) compared with 2014.
For the April-June 2015 quarter, it expects its revenue to be at least USD 3.01 billion.
"Our strong revenue performance this quarter versus our guidance was driven primarily by organic growth of our core businesses and is a reflection that our strategy and offerings are resonating with our clients," Cognizant Chief Financial Officer Karen McLoughlin said on an investor call.
"In addition, we are pleased to increase our full-year revenue and earnings per share (EPS) guidance to reflect the overperformance during the first quarter," she added.
TCS reported 12.4 percent y-o-y growth in revenue at Rs 24,220 crore while Infosys' grew 7.8 percent (constant currency) to USD 2.1 billion in the January-March 2015 quarter.
During the quarter, Cognizant added about 6,200 employees, taking its total headcount to about 2,17,700 globally.
Its annualised attrition, including BPO and trainees, stood at 14 percent during the quarter.
Healthcare services business grew 42.7 percent year-on- year while financial services and manufacturing/retail/ logistics were up 13.4 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.
In terms of geographies, North America business grew 24.8 percent (accounting for 78.7 percent of the quarter's revenues), Europe 1.2 percent (16.3 percent) and the rest of the world 23.7 percent (4.9 percent).
"We had another great quarter and a solid start to 2015. Our sequential growth was well ahead of our previous guidance... The shift towards digital is front and centre for our clients. Our digital offerings are seeing strong traction in the market. In addition, as clients deploy digital technologies, it's creating demand for our traditional services in areas like legacy modernisation and integration," Cognizant Chief Executive Officer Francisco D'Souza said.
The investments the company has made in digital, automation, utility-based delivery models, consulting and industry-specific expertise are clearly paying off, he added.
"We added seven strategic customers in the quarter, defined as those with potential to generate at least USD 5-50 million or more in annual revenue, bringing our total number of strategic clients to 278," McLoughlin said, adding that the company finished the quarter with about USD 3.35 billion in cash and short-term investments.
