HCL Technologies Share Price Crashed By 11% After Q4 Results; Buy/SELL Before Rs 24 Dividend Record Date?

HCL Technologies' share price witnessed a sharp selling pressure on April 22, nosediving by more than 11%. The performance comes after HCL reported a weak Q4 quarter for FY26, with FY27 guidance missing estimates as well. The tech giant has declared a first interim dividend of Rs 24 per share for FY27. That being said, should you buy HCL shares ahead of the upcoming dividend record date?

HCL Technologies Share Price:

At the time of writing, HCL stock dropped by 10.55% or Rs 152.15 to trade at Rs 1289.40 apiece on BSE, with market cap of Rs 3,49,899.98 crore. AT the current m-cap, HCL Tech has lost as much as Rs 41,288.41 crore market valuation compared to previous day's m-cap of Rs 391,188.39 crore.

In the early trade of Wednesday, HCL shares have nosedived by 11.09% to hit an intraday low of Rs 1281.55. The stock is near its 52-week low of Rs 1,275.70 apiece.

According to analysts at Elara Capital, HCL Technologies (HCLT IN) reported a weak Q4 on both revenue and margin fronts. Revenue declined 3.3% QoQ in CC, steeper than market expectations.

The reason why HCL's Q4 turned weaker are --- i) discretionary spending cuts in two large telecom clients, and ii) discontinuation of SAP programs in one manufacturing and one retail client.

HCL's management expects weakness in telecom clients to continue in CY26. As a result of weak Q4, HCLT missed its FY26 revenue growth guidance, and ended FY26 at 3.9% revenue growth in CC versus guidance of 4-4.5% growth. The company is now guiding for 1-4% revenue growth in CC in FY27. The company guiding 17.5-18.5% EBIT margins in FY27.

HCL Technologies Q4 Results

In Q4FY26, the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 4,488 crore, registering a decline of 6.4% QoQ but upside of 4.2% YoY. On the other hand, its revenue stood at Rs 33,981 crore, up by 0.3% QoQ and 12.3% YoY.

In dollar terms, HCL posted a revenue of $3,682 million which was down by 2.9% QoQ but up by 5.3% YoY. The constant currency revenue reported de-growth of 3.3% QoQ but an upside of 2.4% YoY. HCL Software's CC revenue was down by 0.1% QoQ but up by 4.2% YoY.

For FY27 guidance, the company said its revenue growth is expected in the range of 1% to 4% in CC. While services revenue growth is expected in the range of 1.5% to 4.5% in CC. EBIT margins is estimated between 17.5% to 18.5%.

HCL Technologies Interim Dividend:

The Shiv Nadar-backed company has declared first interim dividend of Rs 24 per share for FY27. For the same, the tech giant fixed April 25, 2026, as the record date and payment date on May 5, 2026.

HCL revealed that it paid up to Rs 60 dividend per share in FY26, with a dividend payout ratio of 97.6% in the fiscal. The company paid five interim dividends in 2025-26 financial year. The first interim dividend of Rs 6 per share was in January 2025, followed by Rs 18 dividend per share in April 2025. Later on, the company paid three more dividends of Rs 12 each in July 2025, October 2025 and January 2026.

BUY/SELL HCL Technologies Share Price?

On the valuation, Elara Capital analysts said, "We are considering median revenue growth, i.e., 2.5% in FY27E and ~2% in FY28E. Earnings growth adjusted to one time labor code over FY26-28E is likely to be ~2.0% CAGR. We revise our earnings estimates downwards by 3-5% for FY27E/28E to reflect weak Q4 and FY26 for the company. We maintain SELL with a lower TP of INR 1,200 (unchanged 18x FY28E EPS) from INR 1,270. Better-than-expected revenue and earnings growth are key risks to our call."

Meanwhile, analysts at Axis Securities said, "Management remains optimistic about its AI framework category. Though, the company anticipates its own portfolio will face a 2% to 3% deflationary impact going ahead, near-term headwinds such as geopolitical escalations in Europe and a significant reduction in discretionary spending within the Telecom vertical and Digital business remain crucial parameters to watch We value the company at 19x FY28E EPS and revise our rating on the stock from BUY to HOLD factoring weak macro environment and operational uncertainities with a Target Price of Rs 1,550/share, implying an upside potential of 8% from the CMP."

Forward-looking indicators for HCL Technologies as per JM Financial analysts are - (i) FY27 revenue guidance of 1.5-4.5% cc for Services vs our expectation of 4% to 6%, overall EBIT margin guide at 17.5-18.5%, inline vs expectation (ii) LTM TCV flat YoY at USD 9.3bn in FY26 vs 5% YoY decline in FY25 (iii) Two additional client ramp-downs (manufacturing and retail) to create ~50bps FY27 growth headwind (iv) Management commentary - mid point of the revenue guide assumes planned ramp downs in 2 clients with stable discretionary trends. AI deflation impact of 2-3% in FY27.

"We lower our target multiple to 18x (vs 19x earlier) and cut our FY27-28E estimates by 1-2% given lower growth visibility. Downgrade to REDUCE with revised TP of INR 1350 (vs INR 1440 earlier). Valuations are at 19.5x FY27 consensus EPS - 14% premium to Infosys," analysts at JM added.

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