Infosys Growing Less than Industry Average

"We had a very difficult quarter with revenue declining sequentially. The global currency market volatility continues to be a challenge for the industry," the company's CFO V. Balakrishnan said in the statement. Though earnings per share (EPS) at 40.54 for the fourth quarter were 27 percent up YoY, it was 2.3 percent lower quarter-on-quarter or sequentially.

EPS for the entire fiscal under review (FY 2012) at 145.55 (basic) and 145.54 (diluted) was 21.9 percent higher YoY. "Our focus on high quality growth coupled with strong financial discipline helped us to deliver on EPS guidance in US dollar terms," Balakrishnan noted. Lower projection of EPS for the new fiscal (FY 2013) at 160, an increase of 10 percent YoY, however, did not go well with the street (market) expectations. As a result, shares of the blue chip company was hammered on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) by over 10 percent when it touched a low of 2,451 in early trading as against Thursday's closing rate of 2,750 per share of 5 par value and opening rate of 2,540 per share.

"We are executing on our 3.0 strategy to deliver high quality growth in the medium to long-term. We are also making investments and have put in place a structure to deliver on this strategy," Shibulal observed. The company, however, rewarded its institutional and retail investors, with a whopping 440 percent final dividend of 22 per share and a 200 percent special dividend of 10 per share to mark the completion of 10 years by its BPO (business process outsourcing) subsidiary or back office operations. As a debt-free company, cash reserves, including investments and deposits, shot up to 20,968 crore from 16,819 crore a year ago.

The company and its subsidiaries the world over added 52 clients during the quarter (Q4), taking the total number for fiscal 2012 to 694 as against 665 quarter ago and 620 year ago. On the hiring front, though, the company and its subsidiaries added 10,676 people, during the quarter (Q4), net addition was 4,906 as 5,770 quit in three months, taking the total number of employees for the fiscal under review (FY 2012) to 149,994 from 145,088 a quarter ago and 130,820 a year ago.