Wipro Q2 results expected to be in line with forecast

Wipro, the country’s third-largest IT services company, is likely to achieve moderate growth for the July-September quarter (Q2) with revenue numbers remaining in line with its guidance.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company will announce its Q2 results on Tuesday.

Wipro’s IT services revenue growth should largely remain within the band of 0.5-1.5 per cent in constant currency terms, said analysts. Four brokerage firms— ICICI Securities, Prabhudas Lilladher, Edelweiss, IDBI Capital— have forecast that the company’s growth in constant currency terms will vary between 0.5 to 1.5 per cent, while it might see a tad better numbers in US dollar terms due to cross-currency benefits.

The IT major had guided -0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent growth in US dollar revenues for Q2.

Wipro’s results would be second-IT numbers for the July-September quarter after Tata Consultancy Services posted a little more than four per cent growth in top line for the period. TCS net profit dropped by 2.16 per cent to ~6,446 crore on revenues of ~30,541 crore, which grew 4.3 per cent over the year-ago period.

Wipro’s cross-town rival Infosys would announce results on October 24.

Equity analysts expect better clarity on health care legislation in the US would be the determining factor for Wipro’s IT services growth this fiscal year. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to cut subsidies to insurance companies for providing health care benefits for millions of lowincome people. Wipro earlier said that lack of clarity in Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act legislation by the new government impacted overall health care services and business of HealthPlan Services.

Analysts will keenly watch Wipro management’s commentary on narrowing the growth gap with peers’ expectations for the quarter ahead.

There would be five key points to watch out for.

Margin growth and impact of wage hike

Wipro’s operating margin is expected to have a slight impact on the back of full wage hike as increments were announced effective June, said two analysts. Two other analysts, however, said margin was expected to improve as wage hike pressure would have been offset by operational efficiencies and crosscurrency benefit.

Narrowing growth gap

Wipro has largely posted average growth number for the past few quarters compared with peers and full impact of a key acquisition last year is yet to be seen.

Prospects/uncertainty from health care

One should watch the company’s expectations and commentary from the health care services business and prospects for HealthPlan Services, which was acquired last year.

Full impact of Appirio

Prabhudas Lilladher said Wipro’s US dollar would have a positive growth this year driven by Appirio’s full impact and the company’s commentary on this would be important. Appirio is expected improve Wipro’s cloud-based service delivery.

Client addition and digital growth

The company had a cautious forecast despite achieving good numbers during the first quarter. Therefore, the client metric in Q2 would be a determining factor to understand its opportunities for the whole financial year. Wipro has been aggressive in acquiring firms to add digital skills unlike many Indian peers.