Happiest Minds Q4 Results: Revenue Rises Nearly 3%, Profit Flat

Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd. clocked tepid growth in the March quarter even as profit remained flat and missed estimates.

“We have missed our revenue growth target by 1.3% due to the right-shifting of some Q4 revenues. This has been more than compensated by delivering an Ebitda, which exceeded the upper band of our guidance of 22-24%,” Ashok Soota, executive chairman at Happiest Minds, said in a statement accompanying the earnings. “In view of our strong business pipeline, we are planning a record people addition of 1,300. Accordingly, we are retaining our FY24 revenue guidance growth at 25%.”

This is the 12th consecutive quarter when Happiest Minds has clocked an EBIT growth of more than 25%, Chief Financial Officer Venkatraman Narayanan said in the statement.

Happiest Minds struck 16 new deals in the March quarter, including those from an edtech firm as well as a global auto company headquartered in India. As on March 31, the company had 237 clients.

“We saw a marked improvement in pipeline and deal velocity in the second half of the quarter setting us up well for the first quarter and FY24,” Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Anantharaju said in the statement.

In the January-March quarter, Happiest Minds added a net 306 employees, increasing its total headcount to 4,917. The attrition rate, on a trailing 12-month basis, stood at 19.8%, even as utilisation levels fell to 74.6% from 80.1% in the October-December period.

The Bengaluru-based company has declared a dividend of Rs 3.40/share. The stock, however, fell the most in three weeks after the quarterly results were announced. It ended the day 1.75% lower at Rs 855.70 apiece even as the benchmark Sensex rose 1.16% to 61,764.25 points.