Cognizant revenue up 57 p.c. Y-o-Y

CHENNAI: Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. today reported an increase of 57 per cent in its revenue for the first quarter to $285.5 million from $181.7 million in Q1 2005 and a sequential increase of 11 per cent from $256.9 million reported for the fourth quarter last financial year.

GAAP net income was $47.2 million, or $0.32 per diluted share. GAAP operating margin for the quarter was 18.6%.

“Our first quarter results were driven by escalating demand for our integrated set of services across our entire range of industry verticals. We experienced strong growth in our newer verticals, especially media and telecommunications, and strengthened our leadership positions in financial services, healthcare and life sciences, stemming from our continued investment in building deep relationships with our customers”, Lakshmi Narayanan, president and CEO of Cognizant.

“The quarter was also characterized by an increase in customer spending on strategic development initiatives, and we experienced strong sequential revenue growth across the full range of our service offerings, especially ERP, CRM, testing and data warehousing”, he added.

Giving guidance for the second quarter and full year the company said that it anticipates revenue to be at least $317 million, diluted EPS expected to be approximately $0.33 on a GAAP basis. Fiscal 2006 revenue now anticipated to be at least $1.3 billion diluted EPS expected to be at least $1.37 on a GAAP basis. Total headcount by end of 2006 expected to exceed 35,000.

“Our strong first quarter results and increasingly diversified revenue stream reflect the successful execution of our long-standing strategy of reinvesting in the future growth of the business,” said Gordon Coburn, chief financial officer of Cognizant.