Key Highlights

● Cognizant will report third-quarter results on 29 October 2026 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

● Second-quarter revenue was $5.48 billion, up 4.5%, or 4.1% in constant currency.

● Second-quarter free cash flow was $459 million, and buybacks totalled $1.15 billion.

● Full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance was raised to $5.70 to $5.82.

Latest verified development

Cognizant Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:CTSH) said on 2 October 2026 that it will release third-quarter results on Thursday 29 October 2026, before the market opens, with a conference call at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The date follows a quarter in which the company was also removed from the Nasdaq-100 Index.

Nasdaq's June 2026 quarterly changes, effective before the market opened on Monday 22 June, removed Cognizant from the index. Cognizant is therefore no longer a Nasdaq-100 constituent, although it remains Nasdaq-listed. The change says nothing directly about underlying business quality, and the company's own regular disclosures remain the better guide to operating performance.

Latest reported results

The latest results were for the second quarter, reported on 29 July 2026. Revenue was $5.48 billion, up 4.5%, or 4.1% in constant currency. GAAP operating margin was 15.9%, adjusted operating margin was 16.0%, and diluted earnings per share were $1.36 on a GAAP basis and $1.37 adjusted.

Bookings were mixed. Trailing twelve-month bookings were $29.1 billion, up 5%, but second-quarter bookings alone fell 6%. Financial Services grew 12.0%, its second straight quarter of double-digit growth. Chief executive Ravi Kumar S said organic revenue growth momentum continued and was at the high end of expectations.

Profitability edged up. GAAP earnings per share rose 3.8% and adjusted earnings per share rose 4.6%, while GAAP and adjusted operating margins improved by 30 and 40 basis points respectively. Growth of that order is steady rather than rapid, which frames the question for the next report: whether the company can sustain a mid-single-digit revenue rise while maintaining margin.

Cash and shareholder returns

Cash and equivalents were $1.04 billion at 30 June 2026, and second-quarter free cash flow was $459 million. Cognizant repurchased 22.5 million shares for $1.15 billion in the quarter, leaving $2.3 billion on the authorisation. A dividend of $0.33 per share was payable on 25 August.

The scale of buybacks relative to free cash flow is notable: repurchases in the quarter were about 2.5 times the cash generated in it, which implies the programme was funded partly from sources other than that quarter's free cash flow.

Guidance

Management guided third-quarter revenue of $5.60 billion to $5.68 billion, up 3.4% to 4.9%. For the full year it guided revenue of $22.04 billion to $22.35 billion, an adjusted operating margin of 16.0% to 16.2% and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $5.70 to $5.82, which it raised. These figures are management's forecasts rather than results.

The full-year guidance included a revision to constant-currency revenue growth, now 4.0% to 5.5%, while the adjusted operating margin range was unchanged.

Bookings, margin and the 29 October report

The third-quarter report on 29 October will set revenue against the guided $5.60 billion to $5.68 billion and show whether bookings recover after the 6% second-quarter decline, even as trailing twelve-month bookings stand at $29.1 billion.

The margin guide leaves little room: the adjusted operating margin of 16.0% to 16.2% expected for the year compares with the 16.0% reported in the second quarter.