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Hopes run high as analysts say Infy will come up trumps
Vandana
Gombar
New Delhi, Jan 6: The October-December earnings season
for the IT sector will be flagged off this week with industry
bellwether Infosys Technologies scheduled to announce its third
quarter results on Thursday (January 10). Analysts expect this
second largest software company to post “better than expected”
results during the quarter and provide an upside to all IT stocks.
There is even talk of a better than expected quarter from the
National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom),
which had projected a flat quarter (compared to July-September).
“We are expecting Infosys to post a 40 per cent growth in revenue
and earnings for the quarter (as compared to the same quarter
a year ago),” investment banker and analyst P N Vijay said.
For the July-September quarter, Infosys posted a 45.74 per cent
increase in income from software services and products. Net
profit for the quarter was up 30.8 per cent from Rs 154.01 crore
to Rs 201.56 crore on revenues from services and products of
Rs 650.13 crore against Rs 446.10 crore in the corresponding
quarter a year ago.
For the October-December quarter, Infosys expects income under
this head to range between Rs 640-656 crore.
While Infosys’ earnings per share in the July-September was
at Rs 30.47, the firm expects it to range between Rs 29-31 for
the October-December quarter.
Infosys expects the income from software services and products
to be between Rs 2,540-2,590 crore for the year ending March
2002. This translates into a growth of about 35 per cent. Earnings
per share for the year ending is expected to be between Rs 120-123.
Other IT companies scheduled to announce their result this week
include Mastek (January 11), Sonata Software (January 12) and
Moser Baer (January 15).
The other software major, Wipro, is scheduled to announce its
October-December results on January 18. For the half year ended
September 2001, the firm’s net profit jumped 63 per cent to
Rs 430 crores while revenue was up 21 per cent to Rs Rs 1,676
crore.
Satyam Computer is yet to announce the date on which it announces
results but analysts are looking at a 45 per cent growth year
on year. For July-September, the firm’s income was up 60 per
cent to Rs 453.50 crore from Rs 283.92 crore in the corresponding
quarter a year ago. Net profit in July-September increased by
over 100 per cent to Rs 134.08 crore against Rs 66.94 crore
in the comparable quarter a year ago.
For the half year ended September 2001, Satyam posted an income
of Rs 874.52 crore, up 67 per cent against Rs 524.65 crore.
Net profit for the half year was up 117 per cent at Rs 255.54
crore against Rs 117.31 crore in the corresponding period a
year ago.
IT stocks have been having a bull run in the later half of this
week partly on hopes of better than expected earnings announcement
from the major IT players. Infosys, which closed the first day
of the year at Rs 4073.60 (price-earning ratio of 36.00), closed
at Rs 4295.70 (p/e 40.11) on Friday. Wipro shares closed at
Rs 1602.50 on the first day of the year and closed the first
week of the year at Rs 1,678.45.
Satyam shares closed at Rs 256.75 rupees on Friday against its
January 1 opening of Rs 236.30. Digital Global shares closed
at Rs 514.85 on Friday against the closing price of Rs 500.30
rupees on January 1.
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