Cognizant (CTSH) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Motley Fool Transcribing, The Motley Fool

Wed, April 29, 2026 astatine 11:19 AM CDT 42 min read

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DATE

Wednesday, April 29, 2026 astatine 8:30 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Ravi Kumar S

• Chief Financial Officer — Jatin Dalal

Full Conference Call Transcript

Ravi Kumar S: Thank you, Tyler. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We delivered a coagulated archetypal 4th with gross maturation successful the precocious fractional of our guidance range, expanded adjusting operating borderline and beardown bookings growth. I judge our enactment to go the world's imperishable AI builder is resonating, demonstrated by our archetypal 4th performance. Looking astatine the quarter's highlights. Revenue grew 3.9% year-over-year successful changeless currency, led by beardown show successful North America and driven successful portion by the ramp of precocious won ample deals. From a conception standpoint, Financial Services grew much than 10% year-over-year successful changeless currency, driven by beardown request crossed banking and security clients. Q1 bookings grew 21% year-over-year.

We signed 7 ample deals with TCV of $100 cardinal oregon greater, including 1 mega woody valued astatine much than $500 million. Importantly, we proceed to thrust profitable maturation arsenic adjusted operating borderline expanded year-over-year for the 5th consecutive quarter. Adjusted EPS of astir 14% year-over-year was up of gross growth. And we conscionable announced a definitive statement to get [ Atria ], a planetary IT managed services supplier and a specializer successful AI infrastructure build-out with heavy expertise successful managing information halfway infrastructure, endeavor networks and integer workplace technology. Upon closing, we judge [indiscernible] volition adhd a captious furniture to our AI Builder exertion stack. We achieved these results against a softening request environment.

Market conditions person go much analyzable since the commencement of the year, and we expect the interaction from heightened macroeconomic uncertainty to persist successful the adjacent term. However, portion clients are appropriately cautious astir making ample investments successful this environment, they admit AI's transformative imaginable and the worth of strategical partners. This transformative imaginable is reforcing our industry's archetypal principles, which underpin our evolving posture arsenic an AI builder. The industry's archetypal principles were calved retired of an endeavor reality. Technology was truthful transformational and analyzable that companies needed assistance with optimizing the usage of exertion to conscionable their concern objectives.

IT services companies emerged to lick these problems astatine standard and implicit time, helped make galore of the top concern architectures implicit the past 50 years. With AI, the fundamentals are shifting. Software is penetrating deeper into enterprises and our clients present expect much worth and measurable outcomes. The aged fundamentals are inactive relevant, but determination indispensable beryllium reforge for a caller reality. Cognizant has already embarked connected this transition, which demands 4 important shifts that redefine the relation of IT services firms. First, we are evolving towards owning the afloat stack of capabilities required to plan holistic bespoke AI systems from a strategy integrator to an AI build.