Revenues and margins declined sequentially. The company’s EBIT came in at ₹4,795 crore, down 4.4% QoQ and 7.5% YoY.
Following Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) earnings on Thursday, several technology stocks soared to lifetime highs on Friday, spearheading an outperformance of the broader stock indices. TCS led the pack of five technology companies, including HCL Tech, among the top five gainers in the Nifty.
agenciesHCLTech’s consolidated revenue was ₹ 28,057 crore, up 6.7% from a year ago and down 1.6% sequentially. The Noida-based firm attributed it to a “seasonally weak quarter” and like its larger peer Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the company indicated that discretionary spending is unlikely to be very different from the last financial year. “Although some actions indicate that things may be bottoming out, I don’t want to take that call as there have been too many false starts in the last year when recovery will happen,” said C Vijayakumar, CEO and MD, HCLTech. .
Operating margin declined to 17.1% from 17.6% in the March quarter. HCLTech gave revenue guidance of 3-5% for FY25 and maintained margin guidance at 18-19% for the current fiscal, unchanged from FY24. Vijayakumar expects margins to meet guidance and says the company generally sees higher margins in Q3, which will offset the slower growth seen in the early part of this fiscal.
“Our cash flow generation remains strong with free cash flow at ₹21,637 crore, 133% of PAT and 88% of EBITDA for the last twelve months,” said Prateek Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer, HCLTech.
Giving an outlook he said “We expect growth in Q2 with sequential growth across all verticals and geographies except financial services. We are fully comfortable with the planned impact of the State Street divestiture on revenues in Q2 and including that impact. Revenue and margin guidance for the year is seeing some traction as clients spend on GenAI and other emerging technologies.”
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