The Bengaluru-based company has also revised its dollar guidance upwards. The company expects its revenue to grow 8.9-9.3 per cent and 12.8-13.2 per cent on constant currency terms.

Infosys, India’s second largest software exporter, posted a net income of Rs.34.6 billion rupees for the third quarter ended December, beating analysts’ estimates, and raised its annual sales growth guidance to between 8.9 percent and 9.3 per cent.

The Bengaluru-based company had earlier forecast full-year sales growth in dollar terms would range between 6.4 percent and 8.4 per cent. A Bloomberg survey of 25 analysts estimated net income of 33.5 billion rupees. Infosys shares rose 4.3 per cent to Rs.1,128.70 on the BSE.

Total revenue for the October-December period was Rs. 15,902 crore registering a growth of 15.3 per cent when compared with the year earlier period. The operating profit was Rs.3,959 crore, an increase of 7.3 per cent.

“We have done well in a quarter considered tough due to furloughs, holidays or less working days and headwinds in a few verticals such as energy, manufacturing and telecom while retail was soft,” said Vishal Sikka, CEO and MD, Infosys.

The net profit increased sequentially by 0.9 per cent and stood at $524 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2015. Infosys registered revenue of $2,407 million in Q3 up 12.5 per cent in constant currency terms. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the company’s volume witnessed a growth of 3.1 per cent. “The healthy volume growth this quarter has been encouraging,” said U.B. Pravin Rao, president & COO, Infosys. “The lesser working days and our investments into additional trainees resulted in softer pricing and utilization for the quarter.” Market analysts believe that Infosys is back on the growth path again. “We are expecting to get back to industry leading growth in FY 17,” said Mr. Sikka.

“The management reiterated its outlook of industry leading growth in FY17, and considering the pickup in deal wins, strong volume momentum, traction in top accounts, we believe that it remains on track to deliver on that target,” said Ashish Chopra, VP – Research, at Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd. During the quarter ended December, the company added about 75 new clients taking the active number of clients to 1,045. The company also made a gross addition of 14,027 people in the quarter taking the total number of employees to 1,93,383 as on December 31, 2015. On a standalone basis, the company’s attrition rate declined to 13.4 per cent.

On a geographical basis Infosys major market North America declined by 0.6 per cent, while Europe grew by 2.1 per cent. In industry segment financial services and insurance grew 2.7 per cent, while manufacturing witnessed a decline of 3.7 per cent.

“We believe that newer initiatives like zero distance, design thinking, automation, etc will shore up the growth rates of Infosys and sustain margins over the longer term,” said, Dipen Shah, Senior Vice-President at Kotak Securities.

Infosys said the recent H1B visa fee hike may have less than 0.3 per cent impact on its margins.