Cognizant, one of the world’s leading professional services companies, today announced its fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 financial results. The adjusted margin for the fourth quarter narrowed down to 12.3 per cent compared with 17 per cent in the same quarter of the previous year. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. on Thursday posted revenue of $4.2 billion, down 3 per cent YoY for the Q4 ended December.
Its fourth-quarter result stood at $4.2 billion and full-year revenue at $16.7 billion. The revenues included the impact of the anticipated exit from a customer engagement and the exit from certain content services. The full-year operating cash flow stood at $3.3 billion and free cash flow1 at $2.9 billion. The revenue growth guidance of 2021 rose from 5.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent or 4.0 per cent to 7.0 per cent in constant currency (CC)1 and the quarterly dividend increased to $0.24 per share.
“We accomplished a great deal in the past year whilst keeping our clients and our talented associates foremost in mind,” said Brian Humphries, CEO, Cognizant. “Having strengthened our portfolio, and anticipating the exit of a large financial services engagement, we enter 2021 reinvigorated by our growing commercial momentum, investments in our future, and our vision to become the preeminent technology services partner to clients globally,” he added.
In December 2020, as part of its ongoing balanced capital allocation strategy, the Company increased its share repurchase authorization by $2 billion. In February 2021, the Company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.24 per share, a 9 per cent increase, for shareholders of record on February 18, 2021. This dividend will be payable on February 26, 2021.