Cognizant trims shareholder payouts as AI dealmaking gathers pace
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp has become the third largest Indian heritage IT services firm — after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd — to dial back shareholder payouts as it redirects capital towards acquisitions and AI capability building.Nasdaq-listed Cognizant, which follows a January–December financial calendar as against Indian IT’s April–March year, returned $1.99 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases last year.This year, the company is set to return less.“This year again, $2.5 billion (in free cash flow), we have committed $1.6 billion to be returned to the shareholder, $1 billion by share buyback and $600 million odd in dividends, of which we have now used about $600 million from the remaining $1 billion for Astreya,” said Jatin Dalal, chief financial officer of Cognizant, during the company’s post-earnings analyst call on 29 April.Cognizant ended last year with $21.1 billion in revenue, up 7% year-on-year.“Our long-term capital allocation framework is to deploy ~50% of our annual free cash flow towards M&A aligned with our strategic priorities and ~50% towards dividends and share repurchases, targeting a consistent dividend payout ratio and repurchases to offset dilution.
This framework can vary depending on specific market circumstances and opportunities,” said a Cognizant spokesperson in response to Mint's email on 4 May.Cognizant’s shift mirrors that of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd, both of which returned less cash to shareholders last year.The country’s largest IT services company, TCS, and third-largest HCLTech gave ₹39,571 crore and ₹14,618 crore to shareholders, down 12% and 10% year-on-year,
. Read on livemint.com