Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ:CTSH) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

I do see some improvements, some green shoots in it and that has reflected in our financial services, BFSI results, but we are continuing to watch that area very keenly. Essentially, most of the large deals are on cost takeout, vendor consolidation, productivity, efficiency kind of deals. We are very, very excited about the fact that momentum is going to continue for us. Those are deals the market offers and we are, we seem to be winning well on that. Of course, the period because these large deals are cost-takeout deals, the period, the duration of those deals is longer. So you will see realization of revenues over a period of time, but it is also sticky, and it gives you an opportunity to create better fulfillment through managed services.

So one of the other things we are tracking internally is annual contract value in addition to the total contract value, so that we start to know how much is it contributing to this year. What will be exciting for us is we now have a runway from 2023 into 2024 and going into 2025, we’ll have a runway from 2024.

Tien-Tsin Huang: Great. That’s a complete answer.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Keenan [ph] with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi guys. Just want to ask about pricing in the environment right now since demand is low. Wondering if you are seeing pressure on the rate card in the industry right now and any kind of bottom insight for that?

Jatin Dalal: Yes, Brian, thanks for your question. This is Jatin. So fundamentally, the current environment is that of consolidation of spend, cost management, improvement in the productivity and so on and so forth. So, this is the characteristics of the deals that we are seeing in the market. By design, these deals come with an expectation of superior pricing than what is the pricing, which is inherent in the current work. So, yes, there is a downward pressure on pricing, but it is nothing out of ordinary that one would expect in the current demand environment. We are not seeing out of ordinary behavior in the market as we compete. And I think it is a fair play from that expectation standpoint.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it, got it. And then as my follow-up, you mentioned that normally you guys would narrow the range for the revenue guide, but you’ve kept it due to some of the uncertainties. What would need to happen for you guys to get towards the high end of the range? Would you need some of that short-term demand work to come back? And would it even come back fast enough to hit the P&L to impact this fiscal year to get up towards the, I think, 2% constant currency revenue range.

Jatin Dalal: Sure. So overall the reason for larger range is as follows. I mean, as Ravi mentioned we start with the midpoint and we look at what is the expected outcome that one can get to. Then we see the range of possibilities. Now if you see our own guidance vis-a-vis quarter one to quarter two, there is an improvement in the guidance range that we are giving in quarter two versus quarter one and that also means that we will grow sequentially in quarter two. So overall, we are making good progress. But if you see the demand environment remains reasonably tough, no different than what we spoke in the beginning of the year. And hence, there is a sort of uncertainty in the environment that we are factoring in as we look at our own performance as well as we look at the environment, which is surrounding us.

Now what can help us go towards the higher end of the range are a few things, and one or more of this could help us. One is that there is some improvement in discretionary spend in the later part of the year. The second is, as Ravi mentioned earlier, a lot of times when we win a large deal there is a committed business and there is a right to go after sort of business, which is not committed. But if you fulfill well, if your delivery is good, you can naturally go after that upside to the committed business, that’s second. The third is we spoke about the inorganic component of our guidance. We have maybe 30 to 40 basis points potential to execute on. And that could mean in the second half that could get added to the performance because we have done only one acquisition since the beginning of the year.

And the fourth is sometimes a rebatch kind of deal, which comes with a large volume of revenue getting ramped up at a relatively faster pace than the normal ramp-up that you see in a deal. So one or more of this could be at play. Right now we have remained sort of true to our original guidance. We will narrow the range when we meet you next time. But right now considering all of this sitting where we are in the year we thought we’ll keep the range same as it was in the beginning of the year.

Unidentified Analyst: Thanks for the explanation. Thanks for taking the question.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jonathan Lee with Guggenheim Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Jonathan Lee: Brilliant. Thanks for taking our question. Ravi, given your call out and your prepared remarks to peer commentary, can you talk through any sort of deal leakage or cancellations or delays you may have seen in recent months? And if so, across which types of projects or verticals are you seeing this in?

Ravi Kumar: Yes, so let me start and get Jatin to add. Discretionary has to be earned every year. So the discretionary doesn’t come back. You could call it as structurally leakage, if I may, but it isn’t as much. It’s not like somebody else is taking that away. So discretionary is always, the unknown part, if I may. On the when I started the year in 2023, we had leakages because when there was a consolidation, somebody else was winning it and not us. That isn’t happening anymore. I mean we are very stable with the clients. The clients are continuing to invest in customers. There’s no company specific challenges which have, led to leakage or there is a potential of leakage. We see that as a very stable platform. In fact, my net promoters goes with clients is continuing to scale up every quarter since 2023.

Our attrition rates have fallen significantly. The 10th percentage points we’ve dropped, YoY [ph] this quarter? That’s an important part of what clients trust providers like us. So there is no structural leakage, if I may. The discretionary, which is, the behavior of discretionary spend leads to it not coming back sometimes, coming back in shortest spurts, coming back in a delayed way. Those are the ones you would be you would be watchful about. So that’s broadly how I see it. I mean, most of the managed services deals we are winning both with existing clients, new business as well some which are proactively bid. We are on the winning side. We are mostly on the winning side in the last, I would say 15 months or so.