Tata Consultancy Services reported its third-quarter earnings of the financial year 2019-20 on January 17. The IT major's net profit stood at Rs 8,118 crore compared with Rs 8,105 crore in the same quarter last year.
NSE
Revenue for the quarter rose 6.7 percent YoY to Rs 39,854 crore while in constant currency terms, it grew only 6.8 percent YoY.
The company's recorded the slowest growth among its industry peers owing to structural changes in BFSI and retail segments. Its competitors -- Infosys and HCL Technologies -- raised their guidance for the year while TCS is still struggling to win substantial deals.
So it is not surprising that most brokerages remain bearish on the stock. Here's what global and domestic brokerages are saying about the company:
1. Citi Research:
The brokerage house placed a 'sell' call on the stock with a target price at Rs 19,75 per share saying that future performance of the company will be impacted by challenges in the BFSI/retail while the expectations remain elevated.
It also added, "Good cost optimisation resulted in margin improvement of 100bps QoQ. However, BFSI and UK were particularly sluggish with declines QoQ."
2. HSBC Research: The firm gave a 'hold' call to the stock with the target price set at Rs 1,950 per share.
The brokerage firm expects the company to continue reporting soft revenue growth led by the tepid banking business. It also said the company needed to offer a higher deal of flexibility to revive growth.
3. Credit Suisse: The global brokerage has placed a 'neutral' call on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,950 per share.
The report said that this is the third successive revenue miss by the IT giant. The stock is currently sitting at steep valuations, and although the company is a high-quality franchise, it is not immune to uncertain environment."
4. Morgan Stanley: The brokerage raised the stock's target price to Rs 2,000 from Rs 1,982 per share saying that the share price will fall over the next 15 days.
It further added, "The company expects BFSI to remain soft for the next few quarters. Also, Q3 revenue growth was lower than expected due to softness in BFSI and retail segments. However, the valuation is expensive at 22x December FY21E EPS."
5. Jefferies: This global brokerage firm raised the target price to Rs 2,500 from Rs 2,300 per share with a 'buy' call.
Jefferies said that the margins surprised positively despite Q3 revenue miss and a soft Q4FY20 guidance.
Expect the company to outperform top-tier peers on both growth and margins, the report added.
At 12:10 pm, the shares were trading 2.03 percent lower to Rs 2,174.05 per share on the NSE while on an intraday basis, the stock price slipped 2.63 percent at Rs 2,160.85.