
HCLTech stock plunges on weak guidance, AI-led growth concerns
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.BENGALURU: HCL Technologies Ltd’s (HCLTech) weak growth outlook and client-specific challenges triggered a sharp investor selloff a day after its earnings announcement.Shares of the country’s third-largest IT services company fell nearly 9.5% to ₹1,304 on Wednesday, marking their steepest intra-day decline in over a decade, according to a Mint analysis.The reaction puts HCLTech alongside Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Wipro Ltd, whose shares also declined after recent earnings, as all three companies flagged growth pressures with two of them ending the last fiscal year with a revenue decline.HCLTech clocked a 5.95% year-on-year rise in revenue to $14.66 billion for FY26, beating Bloomberg estimates, but net profit fell 4.05% to $1.96 billion. TCS and Wipro, meanwhile, reported revenue declines of 0.54% and 0.32%, underscoring the broader slowdown across large IT services firms.Despite the topline growth, investors focused on HCLTech’s miss on its full-year guidance and a weaker outlook for FY27, which drove the selloff.
The company fell short of its earlier 4-4.5% constant currency growth forecast.The miss was led by its products business.“Products business decline of 4.1% y-y (in constant currency) led to the miss. Services growth was impacted in 4Q due to reduction in discretionary spend by telco clients and discontinuation of two SAP programs,” said Nomura analysts Abhishek Bhandari and Karan Nain, in a note dated 21 April.Revenue from software products, which contribute about a tenth of total sales, fell 2.8% year-on-year to $1.39 billion.More concerning for investors was the outlook.
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