By Haripriya Suresh and Harshita Mary Varghese
April 29 (Reuters) – Cognizant Technology forecast quarterly revenue below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, signaling cautious client spending on its IT services amid macroeconomic uncertainty, sending its shares down about 6% in premarket trading.
Discretionary spending remains challenged, limiting growth in some IT services, while ongoing cost optimization efforts across industries are adding pressure on deal sizes and revenue expansion.
Broader macroeconomic headwinds are also impacting business visibility, with enterprises adopting a cautious approach toward technology investments.
“I think this year is more uncertain than last year, both from macro, geopolitical and specific industry sort of undercurrents,” Chief Financial Officer Jatin Dalal said in a press conference.
Cognizant also said it has launched “Project Leap” in the second quarter, aimed at accelerating its shift to a more AI-driven model, including investments in integrated offerings and streamlining operations.
The company expects the initiative to generate savings of about $200 million to $300 million in 2026, helping lift its margin outlook, though it will incur restructuring charges of $230 million to $320 million, largely related to workforce reduction and other cost measures.
“Various geographies and parts of the organization will go through the process,” Dalal said without specifying the number of workers impacted.
Cognizant said it will continue to hire more than 20,000 school graduates in 2026 and recruit from the market as needed for growth.
The New Jersey-based company expects current-quarter revenue to be between $5.45 billion and $5.52 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $5.56 billion, according to LSEG data.
For the first quarter, the company reported 5.8% growth in revenue to $5.41 billion, in line with expectations.
“In a complex macroeconomic environment, we delivered first-quarter revenue growth in the upper half of our guidance range, with sustained bookings momentum and Financial Services again leading performance,” CEO Ravi Kumar said.
Revenue from the health sciences unit came in at $1.58 billion in the quarter, below estimates of $1.66 billion.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
