Infosys, India’s second-largest Information Technology company, reported a 17.1 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit at Rs 5,078 crore (before minority interest) for the quarter ended in March on Wednesday. It posted Rs 4,321 crore net profit in the same quarter last year. Gross profit for the quarter stood at Rs 9,147 crore.
Revenue for the March quarter grew 13.1 per cent year-on-year to Rs 26,311 crore, the company said in the regulatory filing. Revenues in constant currency terms grew by 9.6 per cent year-on-year.
The Bengaluru-based company also announced a share buyback of up to Rs 9,200 crore at a maximum price of Rs 1,750 per share, a premium of 25 per cent to Tuesday’s closing price. This would be the third buyback by the IT behemoth in the last five years.
“FY21 was a landmark year with superior shareholder returns backed by robust operating metrics and strong growth across revenue, margins and free cash flows”, said Nilanjan Roy, chief financial officer. “Executing on our capital allocation policy, the company proposes to increase the total dividend per share by 54 per cent over previous year and Buyback of Equity shares of up to Rs 9,200 crore”, he added.
Infosys completed its first buyback of Rs 13,000 crore in December 2017, comprising 11.3 crore equity shares at a price of Rs 1,150 per share. In August 2019, it had bought back 11.05 crore shares under its Rs 8,260 crore buyback offer, at an average price of Rs 747.38 per equity share.
The company also announced a final dividend of Rs 15 per share.
“Despite the disruptions, we continue to execute seamlessly with broad-based momentum across verticals. This has led to healthy volume growth and record utilization in a seasonally soft quarter,” said Pravin Rao, COO.
For the quarter ended March, the company reported a consolidated operating margin of 24.5 per cent. Total operating expenses for the company dropped 4.6 per cent year-on-year in March quarter to Rs 2,707 crore, it mentioned.