Wipro shares tumble 6% after Q3 earnings

Shares of Wipro Ltd on Thursday declined by 6 percent after the company's December 2021 quarter earnings failed to cheer the investors.

The stock tanked 6 percent to settle at Rs 649.85 on BSE. During the day, it tumbled 6.27 percent to Rs 648.

On NSE, it tumbled 5.97 percent to close at Rs 650.05.

The company's market valuation plunged by Rs 22,712.91 crore to Rs 3,56,203.09 on BSE. In volume terms, 18.17 lakh shares were traded on BSE and over 3 crore on NSE. The stock was the biggest drag on both the Sensex and Nifty.

IT services major Wipro Ltd on Wednesday posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,969 crore for the December 2021 quarter, almost flat compared to the year-ago period, but said the demand environment continues to be ''robust''.

''Wipro Ltd India’s third largest information technology outsourcing company reports quarterly earnings in-line with street expectation... Revenues wise Wipro missed street expectations and margins were in-line as expected while net profit was almost flat when compared with Rs 2,968 crore reported in the year-ago period,'' according to Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd.

The company has decided to close its offices globally for the next four weeks ''as a proactive measure'' in the backdrop of fast-spreading Omicron variant of coronavirus, Wipro CEO and Managing Director Thierry Delaporte said.

For the March 2022 quarter, the company expects revenue from the IT services business to be in the range of $2,692 million to $2,745 million, translating into a sequential growth of 2-4 per cent.

The revenue from operations grew 29.6 percent to Rs 20,313.6 crore, from Rs 15,670 crore in the quarter ended December 2020. Seen sequentially, it was 3.2 per cent higher.

''We have guided for a revenue growth of 2-4 per cent, which will translate into a full-year growth of 27 per cent to 28 per cent. The demand environment continues to be robust, and our growth path over the last few quarters reflects this,'' Delaporte said.

Wipro, which gets a bulk of its topline (revenue) from IT services, said it expects revenues from that business to be in the range of $2,692 million to $2,745 million in the March 2022 quarter, a sequential growth of 2 percent to 4 percent.

''Given the strong performance by Wipro over the last few quarters, along with positive demand commentary from the management, the guidance was underwhelming and would act as a drag on near-term share price performance,'' according to a note by Motilal Oswal Research.

Published on: Thursday, January 13, 2022, 06:26 PM IST