India's second largest software exporter, Infosys today reported a lower-than-expected growth in consolidated net profit  for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2015. During the quarter, profit increased 3.51% to Rs 30.97 billion for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2015 as compared to Rs 29.92 billion in the same period last year. On quarter on quarter basis, it posted a fall of 4.71% in the net profit.

Revenues has increased to Rs 134.11 billion for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2015 from Rs 128.75 billion for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2014, representing an increase of 4.2%. On quarter on quarter basis, it posted a fall of 2.79% in the revenues.

Analysts had expected net profit in the range of Rs 31.20 billion to 32.30 billion. On the other hand, revenues were expected in the range of Rs 138 billion to Rs 139 billion.

Commenting on guidance, Infosys said, "Fiscal 2016 revenues are expected to grow 10%-12% in constant currency terms.  In INR terms, revenues are expected to grow 8.4%-10.4% in the financial year 2016."

''We see the industry going through a fundamental and structural transition. Despite being a challenging quarter, I am encouraged by the early successes in executing our Renew-New strategy, on a foundation of learning,'' said CEO & MD, Vishal Sikka. ''Our focused employee engagement initiatives over the last few months have resulted in containing employee attrition to one of the lowest in recent times. And our investments in innovation and in renewing our capabilities are helping to elevate our client relationships.''

''Services growth in the fourth quarter was lower than we expected, though we saw healthy growth in Finacle and our Edge suite. Pricing continues to be under pressure due to increasing commoditization in the traditional outsourcing business, requiring us to ramp up productivity through automation, and enhance our differentiation in large engagements,'' said U.B. Pravin Rao, COO ''But we are well placed to pursue healthy overall growth in the new fiscal year.''

''We were able to improve profitability during the year even as we made investments into our employees and other strategic areas. We have been able to achieve this because of increased operating efficiencies despite a difficult pricing environment,'' said Rajiv Bansal, CFO. ''Consistent with our objective of increasing shareholder returns, the Board has approved an increase in the dividend pay-out ratio to 50% of post-tax profits. The Board has also recommended a 1:1 bonus issue of equity shares and 1:1 stock dividend of American Depositary Shares.''

Shares of the company declined Rs 113.35, or 5.34%, to trade at Rs 2,009.20. The total volume of shares traded was 1,232,886 at the BSE (2.48 p.m., Friday).