Cognizant Q3 FY2026: revenue beat, adjusted EPS flat at $1.49
Cognizant's quarter was a clean revenue beat with a soft centre: revenue of $5.664 billion cleared the guided midpoint, but adjusted EPS of $1.49 landed a fraction of a cent under the $1.4944 consensus and adjusted net income slipped year over year. Read the growth line carefully — on the release's own attribution, acquisitions and third-party product resales supplied most of it.
1 · Expected vs. Actual
Free preview belowGAAP EPS of $1.39 against $0.56 a year ago flatters the comparison, because the prior-year quarter carried a one-time $0.80 non-cash income tax charge. The cleaner figure is adjusted EPS of $1.49, up 7.2% but just below the $1.4944 consensus. Adjusted net income of $670 million was actually below last year's $675 million, so the per-share gain came from a diluted share count that fell to 450 million from 487 million rather than from more profit.
Revenue of $5.664 billion rose 4.6% from $5.415 billion a year earlier, or 4.8% in constant currency, clearing the $5.530 billion guided midpoint by about $134 million. The mix was lopsided: Financial Services grew 12.0% and Communications, Media and Technology 10.5%, while Health Sciences fell 1.1% and Products and Resources 0.9%. Subtract the roughly 2.1 percentage points the release attributes to recent acquisitions and 1.9 points from third-party product resales, and under a percentage point of growth is left from the base business.
Fourth-quarter revenue is guided to $5.49 billion to $5.57 billion, a $5.53 billion midpoint that sits below the $5.664 billion just delivered and implies growth of 3.0% to 4.5%. Full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $5.72 to $5.79 leaves $1.47 to $1.54 for the fourth quarter after $4.25 booked year to date. Adjusted operating margin guidance of approximately 16.1% still implies 30 basis points of expansion for the year.
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Figures on this page come from the company's original SEC filings. The analysis is generated automatically and checked against validation rules, but may still contain errors or omissions. Not investment advice. · Generated 2026-11-03
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