Mumbai-headquartered TCS undertook an ₹18,000-crore share buyback program last year, under which it bought back four crore shares at ₹4,500 each. In FY23, TCS returned ₹42,079 crore or 108.2% of its free cash flow to shareholders through dividends.

Parent company Tata Sons, which owns 72.3% of TCS, has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the generous dividend and share buyback programs over the last three years. TCS has returned ₹99,514 crore to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases over this period, according to an analysis by Mint. TCS, along with Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd returned ₹92,066 crore to shareholders in FY23.

TCS’s stock is up 11% year-to-date, outperforming the Nifty 50, which has returned 8% between 2 January and 6 October. This better-than-expected share performance this year comes even as the company is set to record its slowest pace of growth since the global financial crisis of 2008. A few brokerages, including analysts at JPMorgan, expect the current financial year to be a washout for India’s IT sector and estimate the five biggest firms will see single-digital growth this year.

TCS does not provide quarterly or annual guidance but the management, led by chief executive K Krithivasan, acknowledged at the end of the first quarter that a double-digit growth looked difficult. Shares of TCS closed 0.89% higher at ₹3,621.40 apiece on the NSE on Friday.

The IT major’s profit increased 16.8% to ₹11,120 crore in Q1 FY24 from ₹9,519 crore in the corresponding period last year. Despite an improved performance on an annual basis, TCS saw a 2.7% sequential decline in its profits from ₹11,436 crore in Q4 FY23.

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Updated: 06 Oct 2023, 08:45 PM IST