Infosys board to decide on share buyback on Thursday: ICICI Direct sees revenue rising, margins improving in Q2

Infosys share buyback: Infosys Ltd will consider a proposal for the buyback of equity shares of the company on Thursday, October 13, 2022, the IT heavyweight said in an exchange filing on Monday. The company on the same day is also scheduled to announce its July-September earnings for the financial year 2022-23 (Q2FY23).

“The board of the company will consider a proposal for buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the company at its meeting to be held on October 13, 2022, in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Buy-Back of Securities) Regulations, 2018,” Infosys said in a filing.

A company buys back its own shares from investors or shareholders under a share buyback or repurchase. It is seen as an alternative, tax-efficient way to return money to shareholders.

Revenue growth momentum is expected to continue on strong deal execution while margins are expected to improve sequentially as wage hike is behind now, ICICI Direct Research said in its preview comment on Infosys.

The IT company is expected to register 5 per cent growth sequentially in CC (constant currency) led by continued momentum from financial services, retail, communication, energy and manufacturing, despite it witnessing weakness in some pockets of BFSI and Retail, the domestic brokerage said.

In rupee terms, Infosys’ revenues are expected to increase 6.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) aided by rupee depreciation, ICICI Direct said, factoring in EBIT margin expansion of only 40 basis points Q-o-Q despite wage like impact already taken in Q1, due to continued high attrition.

The share price of Infosys closed at Rs 1,462.7 per unit, up 0.75 per cent on the BSE as compared to 0.34 per cent lower in the S&P BSE Sensex. The counter in the last one year has underperformed the market by around 4 per cent fall in the benchmark index.

Earlier, the Infosys board had approved on April 14, 2021, an up to Rs 9,200 crore buyback plan, which commenced on June 25, 2021.