Wipro hits 52-week high on Q3 results
Wipro surged to its 52-week high on Monday after India’s third largest outsourcer met Street estimates in its December quarter. Results were announced post market hours on Friday.
Wipro made a new 52-week high of Rs. 577.70, rising over 4 per cent today. The stock was the top gainer on the 50-share Nifty benchmark. (Track stock)
As of 11.40 a.m., the stock traded 4.24 per cent higher at Rs. 576.15. Wipro outperformed the broader BSE IT benchmark, which traded up 1.6 per cent. (Track stock)
Wipro’s dollar sales grew 3 per cent sequentially in the December quarter, the best growth the company clocked in the last nine quarters. Operation or ebit margins rose 50 basis points sequentially to 23.5 per cent.
The company has forecast a sequential growth of 2-4 per cent in the March quarter, matching analyst estimates. The outlook included revenue from its acquisition of the mortgage services provider.
Wipro, which has been trying to grow its share of revenues from financial clients, said sales at its financial solutions business grew about 3 per cent over the previous quarter, faster than 0.5 per cent rise at TCS and a 2 per cent growth at Infosys.
The company, owned by billionaire Azim Premji, generated about 26 per cent of its sales from its financial clients in the December quarter.
“BFSI (Banking, financial services and insurance) is a large piece for everybody and that’s where the bulk of the IT services spends are and you need that to really drive growth and meet industry growth. So they are in the right direction,” said Nitin Padmanabhan, an analyst with Espirito Santo brokerage.
Wipro expects to add new clients and is looking for acquisition opportunities in the financial sector to boost growth, its chief executive T.K. Kurien told reporters.
The company’s consolidated net profit from continuing operations for the three months ended December 31 rose to Rs. 2,015 crore against Reuters estimate of Rs. 1,995 crore.
Revenue at the company’s IT business rose 6.4 percent to $1.68 billion in the quarter, as the company added 42 new customers.
