WIT Wipro Ltd

SINGAPORE—Indian outsourcing company Infosys Ltd. on Thursday raised its full-year revenue forecast after reporting a 6.6% increase in its fiscal third-quarter net profit, a sign the software exporter is weathering challenges posed by a new age of computing.

Indian outsourcers, which have long employed relatively inexpensive labor to manage call centers and write code for foreign companies, are trying to reinvent themselves by increasingly providing new kinds of data-intensive offerings, known as digital services, that global clients want.

Bangalore-based Infosys, India's second-largest software exporter by sales, said profit in the three months ended Dec. 31 stood at 34.65 billion rupees ($517 million,) a 6.6% rise from a year earlier. Revenue grew 15.3% to 159.02 billion rupees.

The company raised its revenue forecast for the current financial year. It expects revenue to grow between 8.9% to 9.3% in dollar terms for the year ending March 2016, up from an earlier forecast of 6.4% to 8.4%. In the second quarter, the company revised its revenue forecast lower.

The quarter revealed "stellar numbers from Infosys," which show the company is "positioned for a turnaround," said Dinesh Goel, a partner at outsourcing consultancy ISG India. Mr. Goel said he is more optimistic about the company than he has been for several years, with the firm especially making progress in its digital services

Chief Executive Vishal Sikka "seems to be having quite a positive impact," said Apurva Prasad, an analyst at Indian brokerage Reliance Securities. Mr. Sikka, a veteran of German software company SAP SE, took charge of Infosys in 2014 and has said his vision is to spur innovation within the industry bellwether.

Infosys doesn't break out the revenue it receives from these digital services, but Mr. Sikka told The Wall Street Journal in an October interview that the firm is seeing increased demand for them, and that its work in emerging fields like the Internet of Things constitute some 28% to 30% of its revenue.

The company in February said it was acquiring automation technology provider Panaya, Inc., and in June announced its acquisition of digital commerce company Skava. Expertise from such firms might already be helping to boost Infosys's digital offerings, said Amar Mourya, an analyst at brokerage IndiaNivesh Securities Pvt. Ltd.

India's Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., the country's biggest outsourcer by revenue, on Tuesday said profit in the three months ended Dec. 31 stood at 60.83 billion rupees, compared with 53.28 billion rupees a year earlier. The company said revenues from digital services increased 4% from the previous quarter, and were responsible for 13.7% of total sales.

Wipro Ltd., another of the country's large outsourcing firms, releases its results for the quarter on Monday.

--Debiprasad Nayak contributed to this article.

Write to Newley Purnell at newley.purnell @wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 14, 2016 03:45 ET (08:45 GMT)

Wipro (NYSE:WIT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Wipro (NYSE:WIT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024