 |
| Reuters India’s tech-sector bellwethers |
India’s information-technology index is down 4.1% on a day when the broader market is down just 1.2%, and Infosys Technologies is leading the way—demonstrating that a rise of nearly 14% in fourth-quarter consolidated net profit to 18.18 billion rupees ($408.4 million) isn’t such good news when expectations (as expressed in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of 27 analysts) are for 18.81 billion rupees. Shares of India’s second-largest software exporter by revenue, are down 8.4% in midday trading. (The market is also wondering why Infosys foresees revenue growth in fiscal 2012 of 18% to 20% but earnings-per-share growth of just 5% to 7%.)
“Both the top line and bottom line are below expectations and while the FY12 dollar revenue guidance is in line with expectations, the EPS forecast is much below estimates,” says a local analyst.
Among other major constituents of the IT index, Tata Consultancy Services, which will report its fourth-quarter earnings on April 21, is down 2.1%; Wipro is down 4.6%; and HCL Technologies is down 3.5%.
Rohit Anand, an analyst at PINC Securities, calls the Infosys earnings guidance “ultraconservative,” and says the company is expected to comfortably exceed it—as it has a history of doing. He’s keeping his buy rating, but he is reviewing his target price, currently 3,750 rupees. At last count, the stock was at 3,027 rupees
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.