Can Cognizant's Collaboration With McDonald's Push the Stock Higher?

Cognizant Technology Solution CTSH recently announced a multi-year extension of its partnership with McDonald’s MCD, the world’s leading food service retailer. The extension builds on the successful collaboration that began in 2017. 

The renewed agreement underscores the commitment of both companies to drive innovation through advanced technologies, focusing on enhancing staff enablement, customer experience, and operational efficiency. 

Cognizant will also continue to support McDonald’s in key enterprise areas, leveraging its expertise in Cloud, Enterprise AI, Generative AI, and digital engineering to transform the food services industry.

Cognizant’s Rich Partner Base to Drive Prospects

Cognizant is benefiting from an expanding clientele and a strong partner base. A favorable mix of business renewals and expansions of new opportunities are major drivers for Cognizant in 2025.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation Price and Consensus

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation Price and Consensus

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation price-consensus-chart | Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation Quote

In the third quarter of 2024, CTSH signed six deals exceeding $100 million each, highlighting its ability to win large and strategic contracts. In total, 19 large deals have been signed in 2024, outpacing the 17 deals secured in 2023.

Cognizant’s expanding partner base, which includes McDonald’s, CrowdStrike CRWD, Zscaler ZS, ServiceNow, IBM, Palo Alto Networks NVIDIA and Amazon, is expected to drive its prospects in 2025.

Cognizant recently announced a strategic partnership with CrowdStrike to enhance enterprise security transformation, leveraging the AI-native Falcon cybersecurity platform. 

This collaboration aims to streamline security operations, consolidate fragmented tools, and strengthen cybersecurity posture with next-gen solutions, further solidifying Cognizant’s position as a leader in digital transformation.

Cognizant expanded its partnership with Zscaler in December 2024 to help enterprises transform their security posture with an AI-enabled zero-trust cloud security platform, streamlining policy enforcement, enhancing threat detection, and reducing security complexity at scale.

CTSH Benefits From AI Advancements With Neuro & Flowsource

Cognizant has ramped up its AI capabilities, including platforms like Cognizant Neuro and Flowsource, which have been widely adopted by clients to enhance productivity and streamline operations.

Cognizant is heavily investing in AI, with a commitment of $1 billion to enhance platforms and capabilities.

In January 2025, Cognizant launched its Neuro AI Multi-Agent Accelerator and Multi-Agent Service Suite, designed to help businesses accelerate AI agent adoption for adaptive operations, real-time decision-making, and personalized customer experiences. 

These offerings provide pre-built agent networks, seamless customization, and scalable solutions, enabling organizations to improve efficiency and resilience across various industries.

CTSH’s Earnings Estimates Show Upward Movement

Cognizant’s strong portfolio, along with an expanding partner base, reflects solid top-line growth potential over the long run. 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 revenues is pegged at $21.02 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 6.62%.

The consensus mark for earnings is pegged at $4.97 per share, which remained unchanged over the past 30 days. The figure implies a year-over-year increase of 6.58%.

Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.

Conclusion

Cognizant’s shares are cheap, as suggested by a Value Score of B.

The forward 12-month Price/Sales ratio for CTSH stands at 1.84, lower than the industry’s 7.

However, Cognizant shares have gained 6.2% in the trailing six-month period compared with the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s return of 6.6%. 

The underperformance can be attributed to tight discretionary spending in the manufacturing, logistics and telecom sectors and weak software spending in Europe, which is expected to hurt CTSH’s growth prospects.

Cognizant currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), implying that investors should wait for a more favorable entry point to accumulate the stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (CTSH) : Free Stock Analysis Report

McDonald's Corporation (MCD) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Zscaler, Inc. (ZS) : Free Stock Analysis Report

CrowdStrike (CRWD) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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