Persistent Systems shares decline over 8% post Q4 results; here's the key reason behind the fall

Midcap IT firm Persistent Systems, on Sunday, announced its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 results. The company registered a 14.9% year-on-year (YoY) growth in its Q4FY24 consolidated revenue at ₹2,590 crore. Meanwhile, net profit for the quarter increased 25.4% YoY to ₹315.32 crore.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 9.1% YoY during the quarter to ₹454.36 crore. The order booking for the fourth quarter stood at $447.7 million in total contract value (TCV) and at $316.8 million in annual contract value (ACV) terms, the company said.

Despite the strong Q4 growth, shares of the company were trading over 8% lower on Monday morning.

For financial year 2024, the company reported a 50 basis points contraction in EBIT margin to 14.4%, while the company’s management gave a flat margin guidance for the financial year 2025. Experts believe this margin contraction and tepid guidance may have dampened investor sentiments, leading to selling pressure on the stock.

The company said it spearheaded IT transformation initiatives during the quarter, including upgrading legacy middleware stack to open-source and developing artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) applications for a leading consumer intelligence company. Persistent Systems said it also enabled open-source software porting and validation to support large data volumes for a key cloud infrastructure offering for one of the largest global technology companies.

For the fiscal year 2024, the company reported a 17.6% YoY rise in its revenue at ₹9,821 crore. EBITDA rose 13.5% YoY to ₹1,724 crore, while net profit rose 18.7% YoY to ₹1,093 crore.

The board of directors recommended a final dividend of ₹10 per share on the face value of ₹5 per share for the fiscal year 2024. In January 2024, the board had declared an interim dividend of ₹32 per share on the face value of ₹10 per share.

During the third quarter, Persistent Systems had registered a 15.2% growth in its revenue at ₹2,498.21 crore. EBITDA rose 10% y-o-y to ₹441.83 crore during the quarter while net profit had increased 20.2% to ₹286.13 crore. The third quarter had seen order booking at $521.4 million in TCV and at $392.1 million in ACV terms.

Shares of the company have risen 0.7% since the beginning of the year. The stock has gained over 66% in the last one year.