Shares of IT industry player Mindtree fell nearly 10% in today, even as the company reported a considerable drop in Q1 net profit. Mindtree has reported a 13% drop in net profit to Rs 158.2 crore, a decline of 13.2% drop from the previous quarter. Total revenue for the quarter came in at Rs 1639.5 crore, implying a sequential growth of 12%. Notably, the company also announced that its chief financial officer (CFO) had resigned in order to pursue another opportunity.
JC Narasimhan who was with Mindtree for about 10 years, earlier worked at Bharti Airtel and HCL Technologies. His successor will be found within the next three months, chief executive Rostow Ravanan said in a post earnings conference call.
Taking stock of the reported results, Credit Suisse said that the earnings are good, but there’s very high valuation risk. The headcount addition continues to be strong, and CC growth at 8.2% is ahead of its estimates ar 4%. Axis Capital said that company is on track to clock $1 billion in revenue by FY19. “Revenue beat is the strongest since FY12. The strong Q1 performance has set the tone for industry beating numbers in the coming quarters,” the firm said. Axis Capital has a target price of Rs 1,170 on the shares. Mindtree shares closed at Rs 979.6 on BSE this afternoon. Axis Capital target price implies an upside of more than 20% from the current levels.
Mindtree expects the second quarter revenue growth to be slightly lower than the first quarter, but reiterated its strong growth expectations for the full year. “We are on track to improve margins in FY19…we see Q2 margins slightly better than Q1 excluding currency fluctuations,” outgoing CFO Narasimhan said.
