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Cognizant (CTSH) to Report Q3 Earnings: What's in Store?

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Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH - Free Report) is set to report third-quarter 2020 results on Oct 28.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is currently pegged at $4.15 billion, indicating a decline of 2.27% from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.

The consensus mark for third-quarter earnings has remained steady at 90 cents over the past 30 days. The estimate suggests a year-over-year decline of 16.7%.

Notably, the company beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 7.67%.

Factors to Consider

Cognizant’s third-quarter results are likely to reflect its domain expertise in areas like automation, digital engineering, cloud and IoT.

Steady demand for digital engineering, cloud infrastructure, IoT and analytics solutions is expected to have driven the company’s product and resource revenues in the to-be-reported quarter.

Additionally, the communications, media and technology segment is likely to have benefited from steady demand for digital engineering services. However, the segment’s top-line results might reflect the negative impact of declining content-services demand.

Moreover, steady demand for digital operations and cloud-based environments is likely to have aided Life Sciences in the to-be-reported quarter.

However, reduced client demand, primarily in the travel and hospitality industries hit by the coronavirus-led restrictions, is expected to have thwarted top-line growth in the soon-to-be- reported quarter.

Moreover, in the wake of the ransomware attack in the previous quarter, some clients opted to suspend Cognizant’s access to their networks, which is likely to have impacted billings in the period under review.

Further, expenses pertaining to the company’s acquisition of New Signature and Tin Roof Software are likely to be reflected in the third-quarter results.

What Our Model Says

According to the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But that’s not the case here.

Cognizant has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Stocks to Consider

Here are a few companies you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat in their upcoming releases:

Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +7.4% and carries a Zacks Rank of 2, currently.

Etsy, Inc. (ETSY - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +4.68% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +7.25% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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