Indian IT firm Coforge posts higher Q1 profit, back FY forecast on robust order book

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian information technology services firm Coforge posted a higher first-quarter profit and reiterated its full-year revenue growth forecast on Thursday, driven by a strong increase in orders.

Consolidated net profit rose 10.4% to 1.65 billion rupees ($20.1 million) in the quarter ended June 30, while revenue rose nearly 21% to 22.21 billion rupees.

Noida-based Coforge's order intake for the quarter rose to $531 million, from $315 million last year.

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KEY CONTEXT

India's IT industry is grappling with delays in deal closures, order rampdowns and cancellations prompted by recession worries in key markets in the United States and Europe.

Infosys has cut its full-year forecast, while Tata Consultancy Services, HCLTech and Wipro struggled to meet expectations after clients cut back discretionary spending citing macro uncertainties.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBI Price/ Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to Div

TDA Sales growth growth rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

Coforge Ltd 28.45 17.38 NULL 16.37 33.87 Buy 27 1.06 1.29

LTIMindtree Ltd 28.09 19.29 NULL 10.41 14.27 Hold 35 0.98 1.20

Tata Consultancy 26.46 18.14 4.67 8.53 10.28 Hold 44 1.00 1.40

Services Ltd

HCL Technologies 19.47 11.93 NULL 8.92 7.59 Buy 40 0.99 4.11

Ltd

** The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE

($1 = 81.9900 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Biplob Kumar Das and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)