Infosys’ net profit drops 2.8%, but will return Rs 13,000 crore to shareholders
CEO Vishal Sikka said unanticipated ‘execution challenges’ had affected the overall performance of the company.
Information technology giant Infosys on Thursday said it had reported a consolidated net profit at Rs 3,603 crore for the fourth quarter that ended in March 2017. As compared to the last quarter that ended in December 2016, the company reported a drop of 2.8%. The shares of Infosys traded 2.5% lower after the announcement of its Q4FY17 results on Thursday in early trade.
The company said it had reported a marginal gain of 0.2% in the net profit compared to the same period in 2016. Revenue for the quarter ending March 2017 was at Rs 17,120 crore, growing 3.4% as compared to Rs 16,550 crore in the same period last year. The total revenue at the end of this fiscal year stood at Rs 68,484 crore registering a growth of 9.7%. The net profit of the year was Rs 14,353 crore, the company said.
The Bengaluru-based company announced a dividend of Rs 14.75 per share, and said it will also pay up to Rs 13,000 crore to shareholders in the 2017-2018 financial year by the way of dividend or share buyback. The company said it expects the revenue to grow 6.5% to 8.5% in constant currency dollar by March 2018, which is lower than the industry expectations of 7% to 9%, reported Business Standard.
“Unanticipated execution challenges and distractions in a seasonally soft quarter affected our overall performance,” Infosys Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka said according to PTI.
On Thursday, Infosys also appointed Ravi Venkatesan as a co-chairman of its board. Venkatesan, a former head of Microsoft India, was working with Infosys as an independent director since April 2011.