Cognizant Extends Lead Over Infosys in Employee Headcount and Revenue

In the past six quarters, Cognizant has significantly increased its lead over Infosys in terms of employee headcount, with the difference between the two companies' headcounts expanding by 8,530 to 17,836 during the September quarter. This marks a substantial shift from the situation in the corresponding quarter last year when the difference was just 6,114. While both companies have experienced degrowth in headcount for a few quarters, Cognizant seems to be pulling ahead in this regard.

Cognizant has also been outpacing Infosys in terms of revenue for the last six quarters, although the difference between their revenues has reduced to approximately $179 million as of September 2023. In the June quarter of 2022, this difference was around $462 million, but it dropped to $302 million in the September quarter of the same year.

However, Infosys has been consistently outperforming Cognizant when it comes to net profit over the same period. Thanks to better margins, Infosys' net profit now exceeds Cognizant's by around $226 million.

Pareekh Jain, founder of Pareekh Consulting, suggested that with Ravi Kumar taking the helm at Cognizant, the company has regained momentum, potentially delaying Infosys' aspirations to overtake Cognizant in terms of revenue. However, Jain pointed out that Infosys' revised guidance for FY24 of 1%-2.5% growth is higher than Cognizant's full-year 2023 guidance of -0.7% to flat, indicating that both companies are navigating macro uncertainties and engaged in a tight race in the revenue landscape.