Good news all around for tech stock Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH); the company juggled its executives a bit and offered firmed-up guidance that proved to be ahead of expectations. Investors are clearly satisfied, as Cognizant is up significantly in Thursday afternoon trading.
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Cognizant looks to bring in approximately $4.8 billion for the fourth quarter of 2022, up nicely from earlier projections calling for between $4.72 billion and $4.77 billion. It’s also better than analyst consensus, which expected $4.75 billion for the quarter. For Fiscal Year 2022, the company projects revenue of $19.4 billion against earlier projections calling for $19.3 billion. Analyst consensus, meanwhile, looked for $19.34 billion.
Earnings, however, will take a blow. Cognizant projects adjusted diluted earnings per share figures of between $4.38 and $4.40 per share. That’s not only a fail against consensus—which called for $4.45—but also against previous projections between $4.43 and $4.46. Cognizant followed that up with a shuffle at the top of the C-suite.
Brian Humphries will depart the company on March 15. He’ll remain in an advisory role, eventually succeeded completely by Ravi Kumar. Kumar has 20 years of experience with Infosys Ltd. (NYSE:INFY), where he was ultimately president of the company.
Wall Street, meanwhile, isn’t looking for much good news out of Cognizant. Analyst consensus calls Cognizant stock a Hold with an average price target of $60.83, giving it a downside risk of 6.44%.
