Infosys +8.8% after revenue beat, guidance hike; CTSH, ACN, WIT also gain

• Infosys (NYSE:INFY) has jumped to its highest levels since November after beating FQ3 revenue estimates (EPS was in-line) and raising its FY16 (ends March '16) dollar-based revenue growth guidance to 8.9%-9.3% from a prior 6.4%-8.4%, and above a 7.4% consensus. Credit Suisse has responded by upgrading to Outperform.
• IT outsourcing peers Cognizant (CTSH +5.3%), Accenture (ACN +2.6%), and Wipro (WIT +2.6%) have joined Infosys in outperforming. The Nasdaq is up 1.8%, and the S&P 1.6%.
• FQ3 details: Forex had a 4% impact on Infosys' FQ3 sales growth (8.5% vs. 12.5%). Gross margin fell to 37.2% from 38.7% a year ago. Operating expenses rose 11% Y/Y to $296M. Infosys ended FQ3 with $4.5B in cash, and no debt.
• CEO Vishal Sikka: "Alongside grassroots innovation, we continue to see growing adoption of our Aikido services, bringing the power of intelligent systems, automation and software to amplify the skills and imaginations of our people. This combination helped us deliver encouraging results despite the traditional seasonality of the quarter and the additional headwinds..."
• COO Pravin Rao: "The healthy volume growth this quarter has been encouraging. The lesser working days and our investments into additional trainees resulted in softer pricing and utilization for the quarter ... We continue to simplify our policies and enable greater agility within the company, with the goal of boosting our productivity."
• Infosys' FQ3 results, earnings release