Infosys, Wipro, Tata Tech, Mphasis shares gain after Cognizant's Q2 results: Key takeaways

Cognizant Q2 results: Key takeaways for Indian IT firms

Nuvama Institutional Equities said Cognizant’s commentary on BPO and BFSI segments is a positive read across for Indian listed peers. “Overall, we continue to forecast recovery in tech spends in the medium term as enterprises look to restart spends on modernising legacy IT systems. In the near term, volatility is expected to persist,” it said.

JM Financial said Cognizant’s near-term cautious view on discretionary spend and heightened macroeconomic uncertainty appears largely in line with commentary and revenue guidance of large tiers, indicating that AI deflation is playing out, macro uncertainty remains and high competition continues in the industry.

“Bookings remain healthy, although longer deal durations continue to keep ACV under pressure. This suggests large-deal momentum is intact, but revenue conversion could remain gradual,” JM Financial said.

JM Financial said NSEIT is trading at 17 times FY28E consensus EPS, a 46 per cent premium to Accenture. It remained selective and prefer stocks underpinned by reasonable operational visibility and relatively prefer Mphasis in IT Services, and Sagility in the BPO space.

Cognizant Q3 guidance

Cognizant guided for Q3CY26 revenue of 3.8–5.3 per cent CC YoY, including 200 basi points of inorganic contribution. It lowered the upper end of its 2026 revenue growth guidance to 4–5.5 per cent from 4–6.5 per cent CC YoY, including 150 bps of inorganic contribution, as elevated macro uncertainty delayed discretionary spending recovery.

“Margin guidance was maintained at 16–16.2 per cent. AI engagements increased to 8k-plus (versus 5k in Q1), reflecting continued demand in enterprise AI adoption and production scale deployments. CTSH reiterated plans to hire ~20k freshers in CY26,” Nuvama said.

Foreign brokerage Nomura said “Financial Services is leading AI adoption and is seen as a leading indicator for other industries, with clients leveraging AI for growth imperatives and new discretionary spends. CTSH is positioning itself as an “AI builder” to bridge the “AI velocity gap” between significant AI infrastructure spend and business value realization,” it said.