Wipro trades lower on 3% dip in Q3 profit, muted revenue guidance

The company guided lower-than-expected revenue growth of 0 per cent to 2 per cent in constant currency terms sequentially.

Wipro shares slid 4 per cent to Rs 246 on the BSE on Wednesday on disappointing revenue guidance for January-March quarter (Q4FY20). The company guided lower-than-expected revenue growth of 0 per cent to 2.0 per cent in constant currency terms, sequentially.

The IT firm reported a 3.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in net profit at Rs 2,463 crore for the December quarter (Q3FY20) and attributed this to lesser interest income owing to cash outgo as part of its buyback programme.

However, Wipro met analysts' estimates in other metrics and posted growth in revenues and operating margin. In Q3FY20, consolidated revenues of the company rose 2.7 per cent on a YoY basis at Rs 15,470 crore. In dollar terms, gross revenues of the company were at $2.2 billion.

In the IT services segment, which accounts for more than 95 per cent of Wipro's gross revenues, the company reported 3.3 per cent rise in revenue at $2.094 billion on YoY basis in constant currency (CC) terms. Sequentially, the IT services’ revenue growth was 1.8 per cent. Wipro's CC revenue growth numbers were also higher than its larger peer Infosys, which recorded one per cent rise in sequential basis. During the fourth quarter, the firm expects its revenue from IT services business to be in the range of $2.095 billion to $2.137 billion. which translates to a sequential growth of 0-2 per cent.

Operating margin improved 30 basis points to 18.4 per cent owing to favourable cross currency movement, especially that of rupee. However, margin was 140 basis points lower on YoY basis.

“Financial services vertical disappoint on continued softness driven by macroeconomic environment and furloughs. However, the company expect pick up in the financial sector on the back of strong order bookings. Infact, the company remains confident on pick up in tech spending for most sectors. Healthcare and communications, however, will continue to remain volatile,” analysts at Antique Stock Broking said in result review.

Although Wipro witnessed robust order booking in Q3 and entering the calendar year with a strong pipeline; we will see for sustainability of revenue growth performance in coming quarter for any re-rating, the brokerage firm said with ‘hold’ rating on the stock.

“Over the past few years, Wipro has been under-performing tier-I on growth, partly due to its higher exposure to verticals going through challenges (e.g. Healthcare, ENU). In addition, company level changes (e.g. restructuring in India/Middle East, etc.) further constrained growth. While huge capital return was a key thing to watch out for till recently, that should not be the case in the new buy back taxation paradigm,” analysts at Motilal Oswal Securities said in result update with ‘neutral’ rating on the stock.

At 10:55 AM, the stock was trading 3.89 per cent lower at Rs 247.15 as compared to 0.5 per cent cut in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. A total of 13.8 lakh shares have changed hands on the NSE and BSE so far. In Q3, Wipro's stock gained 5.3 per cent as compared to the Sensex's 7.7 per cent climb in the same period.