Cognizant Profit Rises 86%, Revises Annual Revenue Guidance

U.S.-based Cognizant's net profit jumped over 86 percent to $470 million during June 2017 quarter from the year-ago period, driven by strong growth in verticals like healthcare.

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

The IT services major's revenues rose 8.9 percent 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 percent ($14.70-14.84 billion) compared to a previous forecast of 8-10 percent growth. For the third quarter, it expects revenues to be in the range of $3.73-3.78 billion.

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.