Foreign brokerage Citigroup gave the stock a “sell” rating after management at mid-cap IT company Mphasis said deal wins would take longer to translate into revenue in the current macro environment.

The company is also facing anger from freshers on Twitter over the delay in onboarding. Many have got LoI (Letter of Intent), which will be out soon, but there is no progress on the recruitment front.

The stock was quoted at Rs 2,091 per share on the BSE at 10 am, down 4.8% from its previous close. It was the stock’s biggest intraday drop in seven months. The stock has fallen 7% over the past five sessions and 28% over the past year.

Citi interacted with the firm’s CFO, Manish Dugar, who said the mortgage business would likely remain subdued in the fourth quarter, with overall growth only improving from FY24.

Citi said he indicated the company would remain within its margin guidance range of 15.25-17% for FY23.

In the third quarter, Mphasis reported a 15.3% year-on-year rise in net profit to Rs 412.3 crore. On a sequential basis, profit was down 1.5% from Rs 418.5 crore in the preceding quarter.

Revenue rose 12.2% YoY to Rs 3,506.2 crore but fell 0.4% QoQ.

According to Bloomberg, the stock had 18 buy calls, 12 hold calls, and four sell calls. It trades at 24.4 times earnings. In the third quarter, it secured $401 million in new TCV (total contract value), the second-highest in the company’s history.