Chief Financial Officer, Cognizant
Search every verified Jatin Dalal interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Jatin Dalal, Cognizant’s chief financial officer, said on the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call that the midpoint of the 2026 guidance “assumes a little bit of improvement in discretionary spending in the second half.” He described large deal bookings as “very healthy” and noted that growth was driven by new opportunities from existing and new customers. Dalal also announced Project Leap, a transformation program with expected costs of $230 million to $320 million, substantially all incurred in 2026. He stated that Cognizant is “evolving our commercial models towards fixed and outcome-based pricing” and that several clients are exploring “tokenized rate cards” that price work along a continuum from human-led discovery to autonomous agentic delivery. On the fourth-quarter 2025 call, Dalal said Cognizant expected to return approximately $1.6 billion of capital to shareholders in 2026, including about $1 billion in share repurchases. He also noted that the company was “evaluating a potential primary offering and secondary listing in India.” Earlier, on the third-quarter 2025 call, Dalal increased adjusted operating margin guidance to approximately 15.7%, representing 40 basis points of expansion, and reported a one-time non-cash income tax expense of $390 million related to a deferred tax asset write-off due to the July U.S. budget bill. On the second-quarter 2025 call, he cited changes in U.S. Medicaid policy as a factor expected to weigh on near-term discretionary demand from payers and providers.
“For the first quarter of 2025, we expect revenue to grow 5.6% from 6% to 7.1% year-over-year or 6.5% to 8% in constant currency.”
“In 2025, we do not expect material changes to our capital allocation strategy. We plan to balance the return of capital to shareholders with inorganic growth investments that strengthen our capabilities and support our growth ambition.”
“We just announced a definitive agreement to acquire Astria, a global IT managed services provider and a specialist in AI infrastructure buildout, with deep expertise in managing data center infrastructure, enterprise networks, and digital workplace technology. Upon closing, we believe Astria will add a critical layer t...”
“We are initiating a new program called Project Leap. This program is designed to accelerate our transformation to the operating model of the future by funding investments in our AI capabilities and partnerships, integrated offerings and platforms, reshaping productivity, and upskilling our workforce. The program is exp...”
“We are beginning to see the emergence of AI-infused rate cards, where pricing reflects a blended model of human effort and digital effort. With several clients, we're exploring tokenized rate cards that prices work along a continuum from fully human-led discovery to hybrid to increasingly autonomous agentic delivery. T...”
“We expect to record costs of $230 to $320 million with substantially all incurred in 2026. This consists of $200 to $270 million of employee severance and other personnel-related cost and $30 to $50 million of other charges. These costs will be adjusted in our non-GAAP financial measures.”
“We still expect to return approximately 1.6 billion dollars of capital to shareholders including 1 billion dollars towards share repurchases and the remainder towards our regular dividend. We remain committed to acting in the best interest of our shareholders and will provide updates as appropriate regarding our evalua...”
“We are increasing a fixed bid transaction and outcome based services mix. And we're beginning to see trends of nonlinearity emerge. For example, on a trailing 12 months basis, revenue per employee rose 8% year-over-year, while adjusting operating margin income per employee grew 10%.”
“During the quarter, we recorded a one-time non-cash income tax expense of $390 million or 80 cents per share. As we discussed last quarter, this charge is related to a deferred income tax asset on the balance sheet that is not expected to be realized due to the enactment of the July US budget bill.”
“We are on track with our plan to return $2 billion to shareholders in 2025. This will bring total capital return to shareholders since 2022 to nearly $5 billion.”
“We have been assessing a potential primary offering and a secondary listing in India with our legal and financial advisers. As part of this comprehensive review which is still in its early phase, we are engaging various stakeholders from both India and US to evaluate the implications of such a potential offering and li...”
“We expect to return approximately $1.6 billion of capital to shareholders, including approximately $1 billion towards share repurchases and the remainder towards our regular dividend. This leaves ample expected free cash flow available for future M&A. As always, we will evaluate these plans regularly. In the absence of...”
“We continue to evaluate a potential primary offering and secondary listing in India. We have engaged various financial and legal advisers as well as the regulators in India to assess the idea. As always, we remain committed to acting in the best interest of our shareholders and this process aligns with this commitment....”
“In November, the government of India implemented certain provisions of the code on social security or labor code as part of a broader labor law consolidation initiative. These rules did not have a material impact on our P&L in the quarter but did result in a one-time increase to our defined benefit liability on our bal...”
“We are pleased with our first quarter results which demonstrate continued progress on our path to industry-leading growth. Despite an increasingly complex economic environment, we exceeded the high end of our revenue guidance range and expanded adjusted operating margin by 40 basis points year-over-year driving adjuste...”
... you Tyler and good afternoon everyone thank you for joining our fourth quarter and fullear 2024 earnings call i joined Cognizant ...
CTSH - Earnings call Q3 2025.
CTSH - Earnings call Q1 2025.
At Davos 2026, Moneycontrol speaks with Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar and CFO Jatin Dalal on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. The conversation covers client sentiment amid geopolitical uncertainty, AI-led transformation, self-funded AI initiatives, pricing of digital labor, BPO resurgence, hiring strategy, wage outlook, productivity gains, and India’s growing role as a global operations hub. #davos2026 #moneycontrol #cognizant #ravilumar #jatindalal #wef #ai #itservices #bpo #digitaltransformation #globalbusiness Moneycontrol is India’s leading financial portal, offering market news, exp…
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Cognizant Technology Solutions Q3 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Twitter - https://twitter.com/i101in #earningscall ...
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