Leading software outsourcing firm Cognizant Technology on Tuesday reported a 15.4 per cent rise in net profit at $319.6 million in the quarter driven by a strong ramp up in demand for outsourcing services, up from $276.9 million a year ago.
Its revenue rose 6.7 per cent to $2.31 billion on a sequential basis and 21.9 per cent ($1.89 billion) on a y-o-y basis.
"Our performance during the quarter was stronger than anticipated due to a faster ramp up in demand for outsourcing services and strong discretionary spend on consulting and technology services," Cognizant president Gordon Coburn said in a statement.
Continuous reinvestment in business continues to help Cognizant strengthen its capabilities to address clients' dual mandate of driving greater performance, he added.
The US-based firm with 75 per cent of its workers located in the country, has also revised its full year revenue target. For 2013, it now expects revenue to be at least $8.84 billion, a growth of at least 20.3 per cent over 2012. The company had given a guidance of 19 per cent growth in revenue ($8.74 billion) compared to 2012.
"We delivered yet another quarter of industry-leading growth that was broad-based across our portfolio of industries, services and geographies," company's Chief Executive Francisco D'Souza said.
The sheer velocity of change in the industries that Cognizant serves is driving the C-suite to challenge the status quo and rethink their business models to be relevant for the future, he added.
"Our investments across multiple horizons of growth position us well to deliver differentiated value as we partner with clients in this journey," he said.
Last month, Cognizant's competitors, including TCS and Infosys, had reported robust results driven by reviving demand in the US, which accounts for over 60 per cent of the domestic IT industry's revenues.
The company added 2,100 people (net) in the quarter, while increasing total cash and short-term investments by $460 million to about $3.4 billion.
