New Delhi, Jan 14: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest software services exporter on Monday beat street estimates by reporting a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 3,550 crore for the third quarter versus an ET Now poll of Rs 3,240 crore. The profit growth witnessed an increase of 26.7 per cent year-on-year and 3.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter. It had posted net profit of Rs 2,803 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal (2011-12).
Commenting on the results, TCS CEO N Chandrasekaran said, "We have had an excellent quarter of well rounded performance and have driven a higher quality of revenue." "We believe that clients are going to invest in making their operations digital-ready in 2013 and drive business growth," he added.
The company had good revenue growth, balanced across service lines, industries and geographies, he said. The company is 'very confident' heading into the current quarter and the fiscal year ending March 2014, Chandrasekaran said.
The revenue for the third quarter was reported at Rs 16,070 crore, up 21.7 per cent year-on-year and 2.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Its $100 million plus clients rose to 16 from 14.
"The overall performance has been in line with what we had outlined at the beginning of the year. Our superior execution in this seasonally weak quarter has delivered productivity gains and an expanded operating margins," TCS CFO and Executive Director S Mahalingam said.
TCS operating margin expanded by 56 basis points to 27.3 per cent.
The company saw addition of 17,145 (gross) and 9,561 (net) people, taking its total headcount to 2,63,637.
"We have hired almost 50,000 professionals in the first three quarters of this financial year to support business growth and we continue to forecast a healthy growth in the workforce numbers going forward," TCS Executive VP and Head (Global HR) Ajoy Mukherjee said.
Shares in Tata Consultancy Services closed at Rs 1334.30, up 2.14 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Wipro Ltd, the country's No.3 software services provider, may report a quarterly profit gain of 6.7 per cent, analysts said. The company, which is spinning off its non-information technology businesses and focusing exclusively on IT, will announce its earnings on January 18.
Fourth-ranked HCL Technologies Ltd is expected to report a 43.8 per cent jump in quarterly profit on January 17.
The $100 billion IT services sector has been under pressure to stay profitable as clients in key markets including the United States and Europe maintain a cautious stance on tech spending due to the uncertain global economy.
Last Friday, Infosys surprised investors and analysts with its full-year outlook and quarterly results, leading its stock to shoot up 17 per cent on the BSE.
TCS, which does not provide detailed revenue forecasts, has maintained it expects to beat the industry's export revenue growth forecast set by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).
In November, NASSCOM said the sector was likely to meet the lower end of its revenue growth outlook of 11-14 percent for the year ending in March.
