Infosys to declare Q2 results on 14 October; shares could be hit on second downward guidance

Infosys shares were trading almost flat at Rs 1,065 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday morning even as the company said last Friday that it will be announcing its second quarter (Q2) results on 14 October 2016. The company could take a hit on the day if it indeed lowers its revenue guidance for the current fiscal, as has been hinted by its top management.

The stock has dropped almost 12 percent in the past three months from its closing price of Rs 1,208 on 20 June 2016. The year-low and year-high are Rs 1,009.20 and Rs 1,278, respectively.

The company would consider payment of interim dividend, if any, during the board meeting on the same day. The record date for the putative interim dividend will be 24 October 2016.

A few days ago, the company had said during an analysts' call that it may lower its revenue guidance for the current fiscal, which would be the second in a span of less than three months, despite expressing confidence of a better performance in the September quarter.

On 15 July, the company, while declaring its Q1 results, lowered its FY2017 revenue guidance to 10.5-12 percent from 11.5-13.5 percent earlier, triggering a 10 percent fall in share price. 

The company's recent hint of another such guidance has been prompted by the fallout of Brexit.

"What I could say is that we see that our Q2 growth is going to be higher than the Q1 growth, but we do see risks that would get us towards a territory of downward revision of guidance because the atmosphere during the course of Q2 has worsen compared to what we saw in the beginning of Q2. And you see the example of RBS, its one such example," Vishal Sikka, CEO of Infosys, told analysts. 

The scrapping of a project by RBS led to a ramp-down of about 3,000 employees for the company.

"Infosys has been a W&G program technology partner for Consulting, Application Delivery and Testing services, and subsequent to this decision, will carry out an orderly ramp-down of about 3,000 persons, primarily in India, over the next few months," the Bengaluru-based IT software services exporter said in a statement on 13 August.

The company's June 2016 quarter consolidated net profit was $511 million on revenues of $2,501 million, translating into revenue growth of 10.9 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis and 12.1 percent in constant currency terms. The operating margin came at 24.1 percent.