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Infosys, which posted a 13 percent rise in
third-quarter profit, confirmed it expects sales growth of 7 to
9 percent for the year ending in March 2015, in constant
currency terms and based on exchange rates for the September
quarter.
Analysts said the rate at which it was adding new clients, 59 in
the quarter, meant the company should hit that target.
"It was quite a positive quarter for the company, in what is
traditionally a lull ... That really tells us that the deal
pipeline is strong. That was quite a surprise," said Ankita
Somani, tech analyst with MSFL Research.
Chief Executive Vishal Sikka, who was brought in last year to
chart a new strategy.
Under Sikka, the company, once a trendsetter for India's more
than $100 billion IT outsourcing industry, has made a push for
new age technologies such as machine learning and artificial
intelligence, which the CEO has said will help Infosys hit
annual revenue growth rates of 15-18 percent over time.
On Friday, Infosys said it was also using its workforce more
efficiently, with a utilization rate of 82.7 percent excluding
trainees, its highest in 11 years.
Attrition, or the number of people leaving or retiring, fell in
absolute terms to 8,900 employees in the third quarter from
10,100 in the quarter before.
IT companies depend on huge numbers of engineers to work on
different projects. Significant departures hurt their ability to
get new business.
For the third quarter, the company, which provides IT services
to clients including Apple Inc, Wal-mart Stores and Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE>,
posted a quarterly profit of 32.50 billion Indian rupees ($520.9
million).
Revenue in the period rose 5.9 percent to 137.96 billion rupees.
Shares of the Bengaluru-based company closed up 5 percent at
2074.45 rupees.
($1 = 62.3925 Indian rupees)
(Writing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee,
Clara Ferreira Marques and David Clarke)
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