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"Jan 14 (Reuters) - Shares of HCLTech dropped nearly 10% on Tuesday, marking their worst session since September 2015, after India's third-largest software services provider missed quarterly revenue estimates and raised only the lower end of its full-year sales outlook.

HCLTech was the leading decliner on the blue-chip Nifty 50 index for the day, which rebounded by 0.5% following a 1.5% decline in the preceding session.

Following HCLTech's 5.1% increase in consolidated revenue to 298.9 billion rupees ($3.45 billion), falling short of analysts' expectations of 300.68 billion rupees due to lower performance in its software business, at least 11 brokerages downgraded the stock.

Moreover, four brokerages slashed their price targets on the shares, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Despite HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar's optimism about an enhanced demand environment by 2025, in alignment with unspecified comments, the substantial drop in the share price persisted.

HCLTech upgraded its revenue growth projection for fiscal year 2025 to 4.5%-5% from the earlier 3.5%-5%, attributed to acquisitions.

Goldman Sachs noted that the midpoint of HCLTech's revenue guidance slightly missed their expectations, due to weakened software segment revenue growth and gradual progression of certain discretionary deals.

Sanjeev Hota, vice president and head of research at Mirae Asset Sharekhan, remarked, "Apart from the revenue miss, the fourth-quarter outlook is not as reassuring as anticipated by the market, and the absence of an increase in the upper limit of the revenue forecast contributed to the decline."

In 2024, HCLTech's shares surpassed its counterparts, rising by 31% compared to a 22% increase in the Nifty IT index.

In the same period, rivals Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys saw gains of 8.5% and 22.5%, respectively.

On the day, these stocks were down by 0.31% and 0.61%, respectively.

($1 = 86.5160 Indian rupees)"