Infosys for a change restrained from giving a forecast for the next quarter indicating the enormous volatility in the market and delays in customer decision making. The company’s dollar revenue guidance for the full year ended March 31, 2013 is expected to be at least USD 7.34 billion, a year-on-year growth of 5 percent, down from its April estimate of 8-10 percent growth. Interestingly, Infosys’ guidance of 5 percent is much lower than NASSCOM’S growth estimate of 11-14 percent for the industry in FY 2013. Commenting on the difference in growth projections, Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan said that NASSCOM’S forecast is “ambitious.”           

Infosys reported a 32.9 percent growth in net profit to Rs 2,289 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2012 as against Rs 1,722 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. The topline for the quarter grew 28.5 percent annually to Rs 9,616 crore. In dollar terms, the company’s revenue stood at USD 1.75 billion against USD 1.6 billion in the same quarter last year, up 4.8 percent. The earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter stood at Rs 40.06, a year-on-year growth of 32.9 percent.

“Witnessing the Infosys results today and despite the rationale given for a bad quarterly performance, what is worrying is the FY13 guidance given by them. With this, it is now extremely important to understand as to what is the impact of Infosys 3.0 and what results is it giving. Needless to say, it has definitely impacted employee morale and has set a gloomy mood for the industry,” stated analyst firm Zinnov.     

Reacting to the results and given the company failed to meet its dollar revenue guidance, the stocks fell sharply tumbling down 8.15 percent to Rs 2265.25 at the BSE on the close of Thursday.     

In a statement issued to the media, Infosys CEO SD Shibulal said, “Our focus on Infosys 3.0 and building tomorrow’s enterprise, coupled with disciplined execution will help us deliver high quality growth, despite challenges seen in the global economic situation, resulting in slower IT spends by large corporations.”    

On the technology front, Infosys continues to grow its cloud business with over 150 engagements and 3,000 employees currently deployed in the cloud practice. Over the quarter, the company won over 20 programs across cloud services, Big Data and security. The Infosys Enterprise Mobility practice continues to gain traction in the marketplace with over 150 engagements, 200 application roll-outs, 60 clients and 1,200 mobility professionals.             

The company added 51 clients during the quarter and made a net addition of 1,157 employees. The total headcount of the company as of June 30, 2012 stood at 1, 51,151 employees. It’s interesting to note that Infosys was one of the few large IT companies, which did not give a salary hike to its employees this year and the management today has said they still have no view on salary hike until the economic situation changes.