Infosys Q3 net seen up 22% to Rs 2322 cr

Earnings season for the third quarter will be kicked off with Infosys on Thursday. The company is expected to do well due to rupee depreciation but macro environment remains edgy.

Country's second largest software services exporter Infosys is expected to report a profit after tax of Rs 2,322 crore in the third quarter of FY12, a growth of 21.8% as compared to Rs 1,906 crore in the previous quarter, according to CNBC-TV18 estimates.

Revenues are seen going up 13.9% to Rs 9,223 crore from Rs 8,099 crore during the same period while the company expects a growth of 9-11.3% in revenues at around Rs 8,826-9,012 crore in the quarter ended December 2011.

Earnings before interest and tax are likely to be at Rs 2,785 crore as against Rs 2,281 crore quarter-on-quarter. During the same period, EBIT margin is expected to improve at 30.2% versus 28.16%.

Infosys is likely to post earnings per share of Rs 40.4 in the third quarter of FY12 versus Rs 33.36 crore in previous quarter. The company expects EPS growth of 15.4%- 17.5% at Rs 38.51-39.20.  

Q3 highlights:

• This quarter is expected to be a slow quarter in terms of sequential revenues due to seasonally lower billable days, cross-currency headwinds of around 80 -100 bps and also some delays in discretionary IT projects.
• Volume growth is expected to be around 4-4.5%, dollar revenues are likely to be impacted by cross currency
• Also dollar pricing would be impacted by cross-currency movement.
• Margin improvement is likely to be around 200 basis points. It is possible that company use this opportunity to make necessary investments and accelerate spending in some areas
• Forex loss is expected to be at Rs 25-40 crore versus Rs 33 crore QoQ
• Benefits the most from Rupee depreciation as it is hedged the least in the top 4
• Q4 guidance is likely to be muted at 2.5-4% (alert Q3 guidance at 3.2-5.4%)

Shares of Infosys gained 9% in the past three months as against a loss of 4.6% for the Nifty.