Infosys Beats Q2 Forecasts With 28.6 Percent Jump in Net Profit

Infosys, India's second-largest IT services exporter, said on Friday its second-quarter net profit grew by a higher-than-expected 28.6 percent on higher sales, an increase that would help it meet its annual sales growth forecast.

Infosys said it expects revenue in the fiscal year ending in March 2015 to rise 7-9 percent, maintaining the guidance it had given in July and meeting expectations of most analysts.

Revenue during the quarter rose 2.9 percent to Rs. 13,342 crores ($2.18 billion).

Infosys stock rose as much as 5.7 percent after the results were released. Investors were attracted to the stock after Infosys also said it would issue bonus shares and an interim dividend.

Infosys, which makes more than two-thirds of its sales from clients in the United States and Europe, said profit in the quarter ended September rose to Rs. 3,096 crores ($506.25 million) from Rs. 2,407 cores in the same year-ago period.

(Also Read: Infosys Bids Farewell to Co-Founder S. Gopalakrishnan)

Analysts, on average, were expecting to post a Rs. 2,920 crores quarterly profit, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Bangalore-based Infosys was once a trendsetter in India's more than $100 billion information technology outsourcing industry, but has struggled in recent years to retain staff and market share.

Led by its newly appointed Chief Executive Vishal Sikka, the company is planning to boost investment in cloud computing, smartphone apps and other new technologies to win more high-margin outsourcing contracts.

Infosys provides IT services to western clients including BT Group, Bank of America and Volkswagen.

© Thomson Reuters 2014