Cognizant Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2024 Results

• Fourth quarter revenue of $5.1 billion increased 6.8% year-over-year or 6.7% in constant currency¹, at the high end of our guidance range
• Full-year revenue of $19.7 billion increased 2.0% year-over-year or 1.9% in constant currency
• Full-year operating margin of 14.7% increased 80 basis points year-over-year; Adjusted Operating Margin¹ of 15.3% increased 20 basis points year-over-year
• Trailing 12-month bookings of $27.1 billion, up 3% year-over-year, driven by 11% year-over-year fourth quarter bookings growth
• $1.2 billion returned to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends in 2024
• Cash dividend increased 3% to $0.31 per share for Q1 2025
• 2025 revenue growth guidance of 3.5% to 6.0% in constant currency
• 2025 Adjusted Operating Margin guidance of 15.5% to 15.7%, expansion of 20 to 40 basis points

TEANECK, N.J., Feb. 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH), one of the world's leading professional services companies, today announced its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 financial results.

"I am deeply grateful to our employees for their commitment to our strategic priorities and rigorous execution, which drove fourth quarter revenue growth to the high end of our guidance range. We exited the year with momentum — closing a record 29 large deals during the year — highlighting the effectiveness of our strategy," said Ravi Kumar S, Chief Executive Officer. "In 2024, we accelerated investments in our AI-led platforms and added new capabilities with the acquisitions of Thirdera and Belcan, further strengthening and diversifying our portfolio. Our focus on client centricity, agility, and innovation is helping clients unlock the next wave of hyper productivity and enterprise-grade generative AI adoption."

For the full year 2024, our recently completed acquisitions contributed approximately 200 basis points to the year-over-year change in revenue.

"We ended the year strong, delivering Adjusted Operating Margin of 15.7% in the fourth quarter and 20 basis points expansion for the full year, above our guidance. Free cash flow represented more than 150% of net income, our highest quarter since Q3 2021," said Jatin Dalal, Chief Financial Officer. "We expect that our improved cost structure, achieved through the successful completion of our NextGen program, will help us sustain our pace of strategic investments in support of profitable growth. Our initial 2025 guidance calls for 3.5% to 6.0% constant currency revenue growth and 20 to 40 basis points of full-year Adjusted Operating Margin expansion."

Bookings

Bookings in the fourth quarter increased 11% year-over-year. On a trailing-twelve-month basis, bookings increased 3% year-over-year to $27.1 billion, which represented a book-to-bill of approximately 1.4x. During the quarter, Cognizant signed ten large deals, which are deals with total contract value of $100 million or greater.

Employee Metrics

Voluntary attrition - Tech Services on a trailing-twelve months basis was 15.9% as compared to 13.8% for the period ended December 31, 2023. Total headcount as of December 31, 2024 was 336,800.

Return of Capital to Shareholders

The Company repurchased 1.8 million shares for $140 million during the fourth quarter under its share repurchase program. As of December 31, 2024, there was $1.2 billion remaining under the share repurchase authorization. In February 2025, the Company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.31 per share, a 3% increase year-over-year, for shareholders of record on February 18, 2025. This dividend will be payable on February 26, 2025.

First Quarter and Full-Year 2025 Guidance²
(all growth rates year-over-year)

• First quarter revenue is expected to be $5.0 - $5.1 billion, growth of 5.6% to 7.1%, or 6.5% to 8.0% in constant currency.
• Full-year 2025 revenue is expected to be $20.3 - $20.8 billion, growth of 2.6% to 5.1%, or 3.5% to 6.0% in constant currency.
• Full-year 2025 Adjusted Operating Margin³ is expected to be from 15.5% to 15.7%, or 20 to 40 basis points of expansion.
• Full-year 2025 Adjusted Diluted EPS³ is expected to be in the range of $4.90 to $5.06.

Select Company, Client and Partnership Announcements 

Cognizant is building a portfolio of capabilities combined with deep domain expertise to harness and advance an AI-led future. Cognizant's progress has been accelerated through the following recent platform enhancements, partnerships and client wins:

Platform Enhancements and Partnerships

• Announced a new collaboration with Siemens Digital Industries Software to integrate Siemens' PAVE360™ into Cognizant's software-defined vehicle (SDV) solution accelerator. This enhanced accelerator, featuring Siemens' Simcenter™ Prescan for sensor modeling and scenario-based testing, aims to meet rising customer demands by accelerating the SDV development cycle.
• Launched Stores 360, a comprehensive retail solution designed to streamline store operations, enhance employee productivity and improve customer experiences. Developed in collaboration with ServiceNow, the solution leverages the Cognizant Neuro® AI platform and generative AI-powered Now Assist solution to support key touchpoints in the retail value chain, enabling frictionless and efficient operations. It is designed to elevate retail store operations and improve frontline employee productivity and customer experience with integrated, automated, predictive and gen AI capabilities.
• Announced Cognizant's Neuro® AI Multi-Agent Accelerator and Multi-Agent Service Suite. These new offerings accelerate the development and adoption of AI agents, helping empower businesses to transform their business processes using AI agents for adaptive operations, real-time decision-making, and personalized customer experiences to support all facets of business, from IT and finance to sales and marketing.
• Announced a strategic alliance with CrowdStrike, a global cybersecurity leader, to drive enterprise security transformation by delivering cybersecurity services, powered by the AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon® cybersecurity platform. Cognizant will work to enable organizations to streamline security operations and threat mitigation, consolidate fragmented legacy point products, reduce the complexity of managing cybersecurity programs, and strengthen cybersecurity posture, leveraging Falcon® Next-Gen SIEM and Falcon® Cloud Security.
• Announced an expanded partnership with Zscaler, a cloud security company, with the goal of helping enterprises across industries simplify and transform their security posture with an advanced, AI-enabled zero trust cloud security platform to address evolving cyber threats. Cognizant and Zscaler will offer coordinated solutions and services designed to reduce overall security complexity, maximize security posture, and deliver comprehensive, cost-effective outcomes rapidly and at scale.
• Announced a new FinOps1 Center of Excellence (CoE), built on IBM's leading FinOps software and Cognizant's cloud and developer platforms. Alongside the CoE announcement, Cognizant launched extensions of its Cognizant® Skygrade™ and Flowsource™ platforms that are designed to integrate with IBM Apptio, Turbonomic, watsonx.governance and watsonx Code Assistant for Z. The solutions bring together Cognizant's deep software engineering capabilities with IBM's powerful tools to help enterprise clients transition to modern architectures and streamline cloud management operations.
• Announced an expanded agreement with Medidata, a leader of clinical trial solutions to the life sciences industry, to provide support for Medidata's life sciences clients. As part of the multi-year renewal agreement, Cognizant is providing a dedicated team of Medidata Platform specialists to support their clients in pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, contract research organizations, and patients using Medidata services.

Client Wins

• Renewed strategic partnership with McDonald's Corporation, the world's leading food service retailer. As part of the multi-year agreement, Cognizant will focus on leveraging cutting-edge technology to enhance McDonald's staff enablement, customer experience, and operational efficiency. Cognizant plans to continue supporting McDonald's in various important enterprise areas, including Global Finance Systems and Human Capital Management. Cognizant will leverage its platforms, including Neuro® IT Operations and Skygrade™, to drive better observability, reliability and agility at McDonald's.
• Expanded its longstanding relationship with biopharmaceutical leader Gilead Sciences. Cognizant will provide AI-driven solutions to enhance customer service, employee engagement, and business value. Gilead is expected to enhance its efficiency through leveraging Cognizant's expertise in AI and advanced technology applications.
• Extended collaboration with Savvas Learning Company, a leading K-12 learning solutions provider, to help optimize its back-office IT operations. A trusted Savvas partner since 2019, Cognizant has entered into a multi-year agreement with the company through which Cognizant Flowsource™ will aim to enhance platform engineering capabilities, improve efficiencies, and drive automation for Savvas. The collaboration also plans to focus on efficient order management, in an effort to ensure timely delivery of services to the company's diverse customer base.
• Announced a collaboration with Beyond Bank Australia, one of Australia's largest customer-owned banks, to help transform the digital banking experience. The collaboration aims to enhance operational resilience, streamline processes and improve customer experience through the implementation of innovative technology solutions. Additionally, this collaboration seeks to modernize the bank's IT infrastructure, establish a Security Operations Centre (SOC) and strengthen vendor assurance frameworks to help align with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) standards.

Select Analyst Ratings, Company Recognition and Announcements

• Unveiled a new joint study in collaboration with Oxford Economics which shows how AI is expected to transform the consumer purchasing journey by 2030 and drive significant economic impact. The study, New Minds, New Markets, predicts that as income and purchasing power increases among 18 to 44-year-old AI enthusiasts, this demographic could drive an estimated $4.4 trillion of AI-influenced consumer spending in the U.S. by 2030.
• Cognizant became the first global IT service company to receive the accredited ISO/IEC 42001:2023 certification for its artificial intelligence management system. The certification recognizes Cognizant's leadership in developing, assessing, and deploying AI systems in a safe, trustworthy, and ethical way.
• Named to Newsweek and Statista's America's Most Responsible Companies 2025. In its sixth year, this list acknowledges 600 U.S.-based companies for their commitment to making a positive global impact. Selected from the 2,000 largest publicly traded companies headquartered in the U.S., each winner received scores based on a range of criteria including corporate governance.
• Named to the Wall Street Journal's 250 Best-Managed Companies of 2024. The Management Top 250 ranking, developed by the Drucker Institute, measures corporate management effectiveness by examining performance in five areas: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation and financial strength.
• Recognized as an Employer of Choice by the American Opportunity Index which measures how well America's largest companies drive economic mobility and positive career outcomes for their employees. Of the nine IT Services companies on the list of 100 top companies, Cognizant ranked first.
• Recognized by the Business Intelligence Group (BIG) for our Synapse program, a skilling program designed to train workers across the globe on new technology advancements, like AI, so they're powered for change. This recognition was presented for addressing pressing challenges in workforce development amid technological disruption. Synapse was highlighted for its emphasis on inclusivity, global outreach, and measurable impact, and using innovation to address the global skills gap.
• Recognized as a Leader by Everest Group® in:
  • Quality Engineering (QE) Services for AI Applications and Systems PEAK Matrix® Assessment, 2024
  • Data & Analytics Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment, 2024
  • AI and Generative AI Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment, 2024
  • Healthcare Provider Digital Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment, 2024
  • B2B Sales Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment, 2024
  • Microsoft Azure Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment, 2024
  • AWS Services PEAK Matrix® Assessment, 2024
• Market Leader in HFS Horizons:
  • IOT Services, 2024
  • Health Plans and Payers, 2024
  • The Best Service Provider for Commercial Banking, 2024
  • Salesforce Service Providers, 2024
• A Leader in IDC MarketScape:
  • Worldwide Adobe Experience Cloud Professional Services 2024-2025 Vendor Assessment, doc # US51741024, December 2024
  • Asia/Pacific Salesforce Implementation Services 2024-2025 Vendor Assessment, doc # AP51540024, November 2024
• Leadership in ISG Provider Lens™:
  • Multi Public Cloud Services and Solutions, 2024
  • Contact Center - Customer Experience Services, 2024
  • Supply Chain Services, 2024
  • Oracle Cloud and Technology Ecosystem, 2024
  • Telecom Media and Entertainment, 2024
  • Healthcare Digital Services, 2024
  • Insurance Services, 2024 – US, EU, & ANZ
  • Advanced Analytics and AI Services, 2024 – US & Europe
• Leadership in Avasant's:
  • Generative AI Services
  • Intelligent Automation Services, 2024
  • Mexico Digital Services, 2024
  • End-user Computing Services, 2024
  • Hybrid Enterprise Cloud Services, 2024
  • Intelligent ITOps Services, 2024
  • Consumer Packaged Goods Digital Services, 2024
• Leadership in NelsonHall NEAT Reports:
  • Quality Engineering Services, 2024
  • Transforming Core Banking Services, 2025

Conference Call

Cognizant will host a conference call on February 5, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern) to discuss the Company's fourth quarter 2024 results. To listen to the conference call, please dial (877) 810-9510 (domestic) or +1 (201) 493-6778 (international) and provide the following conference passcode: "Cognizant Call."

The conference call will also be available live on the Investor Relations section of the Cognizant website at http://investors.cognizant.com. An earnings supplement will also be available on the Cognizant website at the time of the conference call. For those who cannot access the live broadcast, a replay will be available. To listen to the replay, please dial (877) 660-6853 (domestically) or +1 (201) 612-7415 (internationally) and enter 13750333 beginning two hours after the end of the call until 11:59 p.m. (Eastern) on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. The replay will also be available at Cognizant's website www.cognizant.com for 60 days following the call.

About Cognizant
Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) engineers modern businesses. We help our clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stay ahead in our fast-changing world. Together, we're improving everyday life. See how at www.cognizant.com or @cognizant.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes statements that may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which is necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. These statements include, but are not limited to, express or implied forward-looking statements relating to our strategy, strategic partnerships and collaborations, competitive position and opportunities in the marketplace, investment in and growth of our business, the pace and magnitude of change and client needs related to generative AI, the effectiveness of our recruiting and talent efforts and related costs, labor market trends, the anticipated amount of capital to be returned to shareholders and our anticipated financial performance, matters related to the Belcan acquisition and other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions, the competitive and rapidly changing nature of the markets we compete in, our ability to successfully use AI-based technologies, the competitive marketplace for talent and its impact on employee recruitment and retention, risks related to our NextGen program and the ultimate benefits of such program, legal, reputational and financial risks resulting from cyberattacks, changes in the regulatory environment, including with respect to immigration, trade and taxes, and the other factors discussed in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cognizant undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities law.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Performance Metrics

Non-GAAP Financial Measures
To supplement our financial results presented in accordance with GAAP, this press release includes references to the following measures defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission as non-GAAP financial measures: Adjusted Operating Margin, Adjusted Diluted EPS, free cash flow, net cash and constant currency revenue growth. These non-GAAP financial measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles and should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures should be read in conjunction with our financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. The reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures should be carefully evaluated.

Our non-GAAP financial measures Adjusted Operating Margin and Adjusted Income from Operations excludes unusual items, such as NextGen charges. Our non-GAAP financial measure Adjusted Diluted EPS excludes unusual items, such as NextGen charges, net non-operating foreign currency exchange gains or losses and the tax impact of all the applicable adjustments. The income tax impact of each item excluded from Adjusted Diluted EPS is calculated by applying the statutory rate and local tax regulations in the jurisdiction in which the item was incurred. Free cash flow is defined as cash flows from operating activities net of purchases of property and equipment. Net cash is defined as cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments less short-term and long-term debt. Constant currency revenue growth is defined as revenues for a given period restated at the comparative period's foreign currency exchange rates measured against the comparative period's reported revenues.

Management believes providing investors with an operating view consistent with how we manage the Company provides enhanced transparency into our operating results. For our internal management reporting and budgeting purposes, we use various GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making, to evaluate period-to-period comparisons, to determine portions of the compensation for our executive officers and for making comparisons of our operating results to those of our competitors. Accordingly, we believe that the presentation of our non-GAAP measures, which exclude certain costs, when read in conjunction with our reported GAAP results, can provide useful supplemental information to our management and investors regarding financial and business trends relating to our financial condition and results of operations.

A limitation of using non-GAAP financial measures versus financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP is that non-GAAP financial measures do not reflect all of the amounts associated with our operating results as determined in accordance with GAAP and may exclude costs that are recurring such as our net non-operating foreign currency exchange gains or losses. In addition, other companies may calculate non-GAAP financial measures differently than us, thereby limiting the usefulness of these non-GAAP financial measures as a comparative tool. We compensate for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from our non-GAAP financial measures to allow investors to evaluate such non-GAAP financial measures.

Performance Metrics

Bookings are defined as total contract value (or TCV) of new contracts, including new contract sales as well as renewals and expansions of existing contracts. Bookings can vary significantly quarter to quarter depending in part on the timing of the signing of a small number of large contracts. Our book-to-bill ratio is defined as bookings for the trailing twelve months divided by revenue for the same period. Measuring bookings involves the use of estimates and judgments and there are no independent standards or requirements governing the calculation of bookings. The extent and timing of conversion of bookings to revenues may be impacted by, among other factors, the types of services and solutions sold, contract duration, the pace of client spending, actual volumes of services delivered as compared to the volumes anticipated at the time of sale, and contract modifications, including terminations, over the lifetime of a contract. The majority of our contracts are terminable by the client on short notice often without penalty, and some without notice. We do not update our bookings for subsequent terminations, reductions or foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Information regarding our bookings is not comparable to, nor should it be substituted for, an analysis of our reported revenues. However, management believes that it is a key indicator of potential future revenues and provides a useful indicator of the volume of our business over time. Large deals are defined as deals with a total contract value of $100 million or greater.

- tables to follow -

The above tables serve to reconcile the Non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Refer to the "About Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Performance Metrics" section of our press release for further information on the use of these Non-GAAP measures.

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SOURCE Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation