Infosys is bright star
Infosys is very much the star performer today; figuring among the top five gainers on the BSE, it rose over 5% to hit an intraday high at Rs.1493.45. Its 52-week high stands at Rs.1953.70, hit on 17th Jan’22.
The market is enthused with three triggers in the stock – the robust Q2FY23 earnings, the optimistic guidance and buyback proposal.
The company ended Q2FY23 with a 2.5% (QoQ) rise in US$ revenue at $4555 million and total revenue rose to Rs.36,538 crore, up 6%.
Net profit was up 12% at Rs.6021 crore.
What really got the market going was the 14% rise in operating profit at Rs.7873 crore and an EBIT margin of 21.5% v/s 20%. Though TCS remains the one with the highest EBIT margin at 24%, Infosys is the one which had the highest margin expansion at 140 bps. Favourable currency movement and cost optimization helped.
In terms of guidance, the company raised its revenue guidance for FY23 to 15-16% from the 14-16% earlier.
On the buyback front, it fixed the buyback price at Rs 1,850 per share, a premium of 30% over Thursday’s closing price of Rs 1,419.7.
The firm’s board has approved an interim dividend of Rs 16.50 per share.