Cognizant logs 86% quarterly net profit growth on 8.9% revenue rise

This is against a net profit of $252 million in the April-June 2016 quarter, Cognizant said in a statement.

The IT services major's revenues rose 8.9 per cent to $3.67 billion in the said quarter, meeting its forecast of $3.63-3.68 billion in topline for the second quarter.

Cognizant has also revised its revenue growth outlook for the full year to 9-10 per cent ($14.70-14.84 billion) compared to a previous forecast of 8-10 per cent growth.

For the third quarter, it expects revenues to be in the range of $3.73-3.78 billion.

"Cognizant delivered strong second-quarter results, which reflect our continued progress in helping clients achieve the value of digitising their entire enterprises, or what we call being digital at scale," Cognizant CEO Francisco D'Souza said.

He added that the company continues to invest in its core business and execute margin improvement and capital return programmes.

"Our strong balance sheet and cash flows continue to support both our capital return programme and our investments in the business to drive future growth," Cognizant CFO Karen McLoughlin said.

Explaining the higher earnings per share (EPS) of $0.80 this quarter compared to $0.41 in the year-ago period, Cognizant said it had incurred an incremental income tax expense in the June 2016 quarter.

This was related to a one-time cash remittance of $2.8 billion from its India subsidiary to non-Indian Cognizant entities, it said.