HCL Q4 good, yet downgraded

Bright factor

- Harsha Jethmalani

CL Technologies Ltd's investors are upbeat, especially in a world where global macroeconomic gloom has lately kept IT stocks on tenterhooks. HCL's shares surged around 8% on Wednesday after its Q4FY25 results. Sequentially, the company's revenue dropped 0.8% in constant currency (CC) terms last quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of a 0.5% revenue drop, hurt by the usual seasonality in its software business.

However, the Street seems optimistic about HCL's FY26 guidance and robust deal wins. The company foresees year-on-year (y-o-y) revenue growth of 2-5% in CC terms, for consolidated and services business. While the guidance is modest, it is better than rivals Infosys Ltd and Wipro Ltd. "HCL's FY26 revenue growth guidance was slightly better than expectations, as well as Infosys (0-3%), with reasonable required compound quarterly growth rate (0.3-1.5%)," said Nuvama Research.