Infosys, India's second largest software services provider, has reported a 17.1 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit at Rs5,078 crore (before minority interest) for the quarter ended 31 March 2021. The company had reported a net profit of Rs4,321 crore in the same quarter last year. ]
Gross profit for the January-March 2021 quarter stood at Rs9,147 crore.
Revenue for the March quarter grew 13.1 per cent year-on-year to Rs26,311 crore, while revenue in constant currency terms grew 9.6 per cent year-on-year, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
Bengaluru-based Infosys also announced a share buyback of up to Rs9,200 crore at a maximum price of Rs1,750 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% over previous year and Buyback of Equity shares of up to ?9,200 crore", he added.
Infosys completed its first buyback of Rs13,000 crore in December 2017, comprising 113 million equity shares at Rs1,150 per share. In August 2019, it bought back 110.5 million shares under its Rs8,260 crore buyback programme, at an average price of Rs747.38 per equity share.
The company also announced a final dividend of Rs15 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 utilisation in a seasonally soft quarter," said Pravin Rao, COO.
For the quarter ended March 2021, the company reported consolidated operating margin of 24.5 per cent. Total operating expenses for the company dropped 4.6 per cent year-on-year in the March quarter to Rs2,707 crore, the company stated.