Cognizant lands Genomics England deal, reports strong Q3

Cognizant will design and implement the technology infrastructure behind Genomics England's 100,000 Genomes Project. The deal was announced as Cognizant reported strong third quarter results.

The 100,000 Genomes Project plans to sequence 100,000 whole genomes from National Health Service patients and their families. Of that group, 70,000 have cancer or rare diseases. Genomics England is a company owned the U.K. Department of Health.

Under the two-year deal, Cognizant will provide integration and analytics for Genomic England's technology platform.

In addition, Cognizant reported third quarter earnings of $397.2 million, or 65 cents a share, on revenue of $3.19 billion, up 23.5 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were 76 cents a share.

CEO Francisco D'Souza said the company executed across well across its main industries. Cognizant has been focusing on clients who are spending more on digital transformation.

On a conference call, D'Souza said:

Our clients recognize that becoming a digital enterprise is now a necessity, a matter of survival, as businesses, products, people and devices become more connected.

Therefore, they are looking for innovative ways to combine of their traditional business models and product sets with the new and continuously evolving digital technologies.

This is leading to a significant change in the way IT and operations budgets are allocated. Clients are recalibrating their spending, moving dollars from keep the lights on maintenance and operations project to new digital initiatives that can create competitive advantage by enabling new levels of business performance.

For the fourth quarter, Cognizant is projecting revenue of $3.23 billion with non-GAAP earnings of 77 cents a share. For the year, Cognizant projected revenue of $12.41 billion, up 21 percent from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings will be at least $3.03 a share.

The outlook and quarter was largely in line with expectations.