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Item 1A. Risk Factors

We face various important risks and uncertainties, including those described below, that could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition and, as a result, cause a decline in the trading price of our common stock.

Risks Related to our Business and Operations

Our results of operations could be adversely affected by economic and political conditions globally and in particular in the markets in which our clients and operations are concentrated.

Global macroeconomic conditions have a significant effect on our business as well as the businesses of our clients. Volatile, negative or uncertain economic conditions have in the past and could in the future cause our clients to reduce, postpone or cancel spending on projects with us, making it more difficult for us to accurately forecast client demand and have available the right resources to profitably address such client demand. For example, in 2023 some of our clients reduced their discretionary spending in response to economic uncertainty, which negatively impacted our revenues. Clients may reduce demand for services quickly and with little warning, which may cause us to incur extra costs where we have employed more personnel than client demand supports.

Our business is particularly susceptible to economic and political conditions in the markets where our clients or operations are concentrated. Our revenues are highly dependent on clients located in the United States and Europe, and any adverse economic, political or legal uncertainties or adverse developments, including due to the uncertainty related to the economic environment and inflation, may cause clients in these geographies to reduce their spending and materially adversely impact our business. Many of our clients are in the financial services and healthcare industries, so any decrease in growth or significant consolidation in these industries or regulatory policies that restrict these industries may reduce demand for our services. Economic and political developments in India, where a significant majority of our operations and technical personnel are located, or in other countries where we maintain delivery operations, may also have a significant impact on our business and costs of operations. As a developing country, India has experienced and may continue to experience high inflation and wage growth, fluctuations in gross domestic product growth and volatility in currency exchange rates, any of which could materially adversely affect our cost of operations. Additionally, we benefit from governmental policies in countries that encourage foreign investment and promote the ease of doing business, such as tax incentives, and any change in policy or circumstances that results in the elimination of such benefits or degradation of the rule of law, or imposition of new adverse restrictions or costs on our operations could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If we are unable to attract, train and retain skilled employees to satisfy client demand, including highly skilled technical personnel and personnel with experience in key digital areas, as well as senior management to lead our business globally, our business and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

Our success is dependent, in large part, on our ability to keep our supply of skilled employees, including project managers, IT engineers and senior technical personnel, in particular those with experience in key digital areas, in balance with client demand around the world and on our ability to attract and retain senior management with the knowledge and skills to lead our business globally. In 2021 and most of 2022, we, and we believe the IT industry as a whole, experienced unprecedented attrition. As a result, we hired over a hundred thousand new employees in each of 2021 and 2022, and over sixty thousand in 2023. Correspondingly, we have needed to reskill, retain, integrate and motivate our large workforce with diverse skills and expertise in order to serve client demands across the globe, respond quickly to rapid and ongoing technological, industry and macroeconomic developments and grow and manage our business. The rate of attrition began to decrease in the second half of 2022, but if such attrition levels increase again in the future, it could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations. We also must continue to maintain a senior leadership team that, among other things, is effective in executing on our strategic goals and growing our digital business. The loss of senior executives, or the failure to attract, integrate and retain new senior executives as the needs of our business require, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Competition for skilled labor is intense and, in some jurisdictions in which we operate and in key digital areas, there are more open positions than qualified persons to fill these positions. We compete for employees not only with other companies in our industry but also with companies in other industries, such as software services, engineering services and financial services companies. Our business has experienced in the past and may experience in the future significant employee attrition, which has caused us to incur increased costs to hire new employees with the desired skills. While we strive to adjust pricing to reduce the impact of compensation increases on our operating margin, we may not be successful in recovering these increases, which could adversely affect our profitability and operating margin. Costs associated with recruiting and training employees are

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significant. If we are unable to hire or deploy employees with the needed skillsets or if we are unable to adequately equip our employees with the skills needed, this could materially adversely affect our business.

Additionally, if we are unable to offer our employees a value proposition that is competitive and appealing, it could have an adverse effect on engagement and retention, which may materially adversely affect our business.

Many of our contracts with clients are short-term, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected if our clients terminate their contracts on short notice.

Consistent with industry practice, many of our contracts with clients are short-term or can be terminated by our clients with short notice and without significant early termination cost. Even if not terminated, clients may be able to delay, reduce or eliminate spending on the services and solutions we provide, choose not to retain us for additional stages of a project, try to renegotiate the terms of a contract or cancel or delay additional planned work. Terminations and such other events may result from factors that are beyond our control and unrelated to our work product or the progress of the project, including the business, financial or labor conditions of a client, changes in ownership, management or the strategy of a client or economic or market conditions generally or specific to a client’s industry. When contracts are terminated or spending delayed, we lose the anticipated revenues and might not be able to eliminate our associated costs in a timely manner. In particular, the loss of a significant client or a few significant clients could materially reduce revenues for the Company as a whole or for a particular business segment. In addition, our operating margins in subsequent periods could be lower than expected. If we are unable to replace the lost revenues with other work on terms we find acceptable or effectively eliminate costs, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We face challenges related to growing our business organically as well as inorganically through acquisitions, and we may not be able to achieve our targeted growth rates.

Achievement of our targeted growth rates requires continued significant organic growth of our business as well as inorganic growth through acquisitions. To achieve such growth, we must, among other things, continue to significantly expand our global operations, in particular with respect to digital, and scale our infrastructure to support such business growth and ensure that our service offerings remain responsive to market demand. Continued business growth increases the complexity of our business and places significant strain on our management, employees, operations, systems, delivery, financial resources, and internal financial control and reporting functions, which we will have to continue to develop and improve to sustain such growth. Our ability to successfully manage change associated with the various business transformation initiatives is critical for the overall strategy execution. We must continually recruit and train new employees, retain and reskill, as necessary, existing sales, technical, finance, marketing and management employees with the knowledge, skills and experience that our business model requires and effectively manage our employees worldwide to support our culture, values, strategies and goals.

Additionally, we expect to continue pursuing strategic and targeted acquisitions and investments to enhance our offerings of services and solutions or to enable us to expand our talent, experience and capabilities in key digital areas or in particular geographies or industries. We may not be successful in identifying suitable opportunities, completing targeted transactions or achieving the desired results in the timeframe we expect or at all, such opportunities may divert our management's time and focus away from our core business and realizing the desired results of a particular transaction may depend upon competition, market trends, regulatory developments, additional costs or investments and the actions of suppliers or other third parties. We may face challenges in effectively integrating acquired businesses into our ongoing operations and in assimilating and retaining employees of those businesses into our culture and organizational structure, and these risks may be magnified by the size and number of transactions we execute.

If we are unable to manage our growth effectively, complete acquisitions of the number, magnitude and nature we have targeted, or successfully integrate any acquired businesses into our operations, we may not be able to achieve our targeted growth rates or improve our market share, profitability or competitive position generally or in specific markets or services.

Our NextGen program and the associated reductions in headcount and consolidation of office space could disrupt our business, may not result in anticipated savings, and could result in total costs and expenses that are greater than expected.

Guided by our strategic priorities, in the second quarter of 2023 we initiated the NextGen program aimed at simplifying our operating model, optimizing corporate functions and consolidating and realigning office space to reflect the post-pandemic hybrid work environment. Our drive for simplification will include operating with fewer layers in an effort to enhance agility and enable faster decision making.

In connection with the NextGen program, in 2023 we incurred $115 million of employee separation costs and $114 million of facility exit and other costs totaling $229 million. See Note 4 to our audited consolidated financial statements. We

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currently expect to incur total costs of approximately $300 million with approximately $70 million of such costs anticipated in 2024. The NextGen program may result in the loss of institutional knowledge and expertise, as well as the reallocation of certain roles and responsibilities across the Company, all of which could adversely affect our operations. Such effects from our NextGen program could have a material adverse effect on our ability to execute on our business plan. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in implementing our NextGen program, which may be disruptive to our operations, or may cause difficulties in the retention of our remaining employees or reduced productivity among remaining employees. In addition, we may not realize, in full or in part, the anticipated benefits, savings and improvements in our cost structure from the NextGen program due to unforeseen difficulties, delays or unexpected costs. If the actual amount and timing of costs differ from our current expectations and estimates or we are unable to realize the expected operational efficiencies and cost savings from the NextGen program, our operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected. Furthermore, we may incur unanticipated charges or be required to make cash payments as a result of our NextGen program that were not previously contemplated, which could result in an adverse effect on our business or results of operations.

We may not be able to achieve our profitability goals and maintain our capital return strategy.

Our goals for profitability and capital return rely upon a number of assumptions, including our ability to improve the efficiency of our operations and make successful investments to grow and further develop our business. Our profitability is impacted by our ability to accurately estimate, attain, and sustain revenues from client engagements, margins and cash flows over contract periods and general economic and political conditions. Our profitability also depends on the efficiency with which we run our operations (including changes in our internal organizational structure) and the cost of our operations, especially the compensation and benefits costs of our employees. We have incurred, and may continue to incur, substantial costs related to implementing our strategy to optimize such costs, and we may not realize the ultimate cost savings that we expect. We may not be able to efficiently utilize our employees if increased regulation, policy changes or administrative burdens of immigration, work visas or client worksite placement prevents us from deploying our employees on a timely basis, or at all, to fulfill the needs of our clients. Our utilization rates are further affected by a number of factors, including our ability to transition employees from completed projects to new assignments, hire and assimilate new employees, forecast demand for our services and thereby maintain an appropriate headcount in each of our geographies and workforce and manage attrition, and our need to devote time and resources to training, professional development and other typically non-chargeable activities. Increases in wages and other costs, including as a result of attrition, may also put pressure on our profitability.

With respect to capital return, our ability and decisions to pay dividends and repurchase shares depend on a variety of factors, including the cash flow generated from operations, our cash and investment balances, our net income, our overall liquidity position, potential alternative uses of cash, such as acquisitions, and anticipated future economic conditions and financial results. Failure to carry out our capital return strategy may adversely impact our reputation with shareholders and shareholders’ perception of our business and the trading price of our common stock.

Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, or the failure of our hedging strategies to mitigate such fluctuations, can adversely impact our profitability, results of operations and financial condition.

Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates can also have adverse effects on our revenues, income from operations and net income when items denominated in other currencies are translated or remeasured into U.S. dollars for presentation of our consolidated financial statements. We have entered into foreign exchange forward contracts intended to partially offset the impact of the movement of the exchange rates on future operating costs and to mitigate foreign currency risk on foreign currency denominated net monetary assets. However, the hedging strategies that we have implemented, or may in the future implement, to mitigate foreign currency exchange rate risks may not reduce or completely offset our exposure to foreign exchange rate fluctuations and may expose our business to unexpected market, operational and counterparty credit risks. We are particularly susceptible to wage and cost pressures in India and the exchange rate of the Indian rupee relative to the currencies of our client contracts due to the fact that the substantial majority of our employees are in India while our contracts with clients are typically in the local currency of the country where our clients are located.

Our failure to meet specified service levels or milestones required by certain of our client contracts may result in our client contracts being less profitable, potential liability for penalties or damages or reputational harm.

Many of our client contracts include clauses that tie our compensation to the achievement of agreed-upon performance standards or milestones. Failure to satisfy these requirements could significantly reduce our fees under the contracts, increase the cost to us of meeting performance standards or milestones, delay expected payments, subject us to potential damage claims under the contract terms or harm our reputation. The use of new technologies in our offerings (including GenAI) can expose us to additional risks if those technologies fail to work as predicted, which could lead to cost overruns, project delays, financial penalties, or damage to our reputation. Clients also often have the right to terminate a contract and pursue damages claims for serious or repeated failure to meet these service commitments. Some of our contracts provide that a portion of our compensation depends on performance measures such as cost-savings, revenue enhancement, benefits produced, business goals

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attained and adherence to schedule. These goals can be complex and may depend on our clients’ actual levels of business activity or may be based on assumptions that are later determined not to be achievable or accurate. As such, these provisions may increase the variability in revenues and margins earned on those contracts and have in the past resulted, and could in the future result, in significant losses on such contracts. Further, if we do not accurately estimate the effort, costs or timing for meeting our contractual commitments or completing engagements to a client's satisfaction, our contracts could have delivery inefficiencies and be less profitable than expected or unprofitable.

We face intense and evolving competition and our service offerings must keep pace with significant technological advances in the rapidly changing markets we compete in.

The markets we serve and operate in are highly competitive, subject to rapid change and characterized by a large number of participants, as described in “Part I, Item 1. Business-Competition.” We compete on the basis of reputation and experience, strategic advisory capabilities, digital services capabilities, performance and reliability, responsiveness to customer needs, financial stability, corporate governance and competitive pricing of services. The less we are able to differentiate our services and solutions and/or clearly convey the value of our services and solutions, the more difficulty we have in winning new work in sufficient volumes and at our target pricing and overall economics. In addition to large, global competitors, we face competition in many geographic markets from numerous smaller, local competitors that may have more experience with operations in these markets, have well-established relationships with our desired clients, or be able to provide services and solutions at lower costs or on terms more attractive to clients than we can. Consolidation activity may also result in new competitors with greater scale, a broader footprint or vertical integration that makes them more attractive to clients as a single provider of integrated products and services. In addition, concurrent use by many clients of multiple professional service providers means that we are required to be continually competitive on the quality, scope and pricing of our offerings or face a reduction or elimination of our business. Competitors may also be willing, at times, to take on more risk or price contracts lower than us in an effort to enter the market or increase market share. If we are not able to supply clients with services that they deem superior and successfully apply current business models with market level pricing while managing discounts, we may lose business to competitors and face downward pressure on gross margins and profitability. Any inability to compete effectively would materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our relationships with our third-party alliance partners, who supply us with necessary components to the services and solutions we offer our clients, are also critical to our ability to provide many of our services and solutions that address client demands. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain such relationships or that such components will be available on the expected timelines or for anticipated prices. Among other things, such alliance partners may in the future decide to compete with us, form exclusive or more favorable arrangements with our competitors or otherwise reduce our access to their products, thereby impairing our ability to provide the services and solutions demanded by clients. Any performance failure on the part of our alliance partners, or the discontinuance by such alliance partners of services that we have relied on them to perform for our clients, could delay our performance or require us to engage alternative third parties to perform the services at our cost or to perform them ourselves, any of which could deprive us of potential revenue or adversely impact our profitability.

Our competitiveness also depends on our ability to continue to develop and implement services and solutions that anticipate and respond to rapid and continuing changes in technology to serve the evolving needs of our clients. Examples of areas of significant change include digital-, cloud- and security-related offerings, which are continually evolving, as well as developments in areas such as AI, augmented reality, automation, blockchain, IoT, quantum computing and as-a-service solutions, among others. If we do not sufficiently invest in new technologies, successfully adapt to industry developments and changing demand, and evolve and expand our business at sufficient speed and scale to keep pace with the demands of the markets we serve, we may be unable to develop and maintain a competitive advantage and execute on our growth strategy, which would materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, our clients may delay spending under existing contracts and engagements or delay entering into new contracts while evaluating new technologies. Such delays can negatively impact our results of operations if we are unable to adapt our pricing or the pace and level of spending on new technologies is not sufficient to make up any shortfall. Further, as we expand into these areas, we may be exposed to operational, legal, regulatory, ethical, technological and other risks specific to such new areas, which may negatively affect our reputation and demand for our services and solutions.

Our use of AI technologies may not be successful and may present business, financial, legal, and reputational risks.

We increasingly use AI-based technologies, including GenAI, in our client offerings and our own internal operations. As with many innovations, AI presents risks and challenges that could adversely impact our business.

The development, adoption, and use of AI technologies are still in their early stages and ineffective or inadequate AI development or deployment practices by us, our clients, or third parties with whom we do business could result in unintended

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consequences. Such consequences may include, for example, employees making decisions based on biased or inaccurate information; disclosure of sensitive information; deliberate misuse; or infringement of third-party intellectual property rights. In turn, these consequences may cause decreased demand for our services or harm to our business, results of operations, or reputation.

AI technology and services are part of a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market. We plan to incur significant development and operational costs to build and support our AI capabilities to meet the needs of our clients. We face significant competition from our traditional competitors as well as other third parties, including those that are new to the market, and our clients may develop their own AI-related capabilities. In addition, as these technologies evolve, we expect that some services that we currently perform for our clients will be replaced by AI or forms of automation. Each of the foregoing may lead to reduced demand for our services or harm our ability to obtain favorable pricing or other terms for our services, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Furthermore, the legal and regulatory landscape surrounding AI technologies is rapidly evolving and uncertain including in the areas of intellectual property, cybersecurity, and privacy and data protection. Compliance with new or changing laws, regulations, industry standards or ethical requirements and expectations relating to AI may impose significant operational costs requiring us to change our service offerings or business practices, or may limit or prevent our ability to develop, deploy, or use AI technologies. Failure to appropriately conform to this evolving landscape may result in legal liability, regulatory action, or brand and reputational harm.

We face legal, reputational and financial risks if we fail to protect client and/or Cognizant data from security breaches and/or cyberattacks.

In order to provide our services and solutions, we depend on global information technology networks and systems, to process, transmit, host and securely store electronic information (including our confidential information and the confidential information of our clients) and to communicate among our locations around the world and with our clients, suppliers and alliance partners (including numerous cloud service providers). Security breaches, employee malfeasance, or human or technological error create risks of shutdowns or disruptions of our operations and potential unauthorized access and/or disclosure of our or our clients’ sensitive data, which in turn could jeopardize projects that are critical to our operations or the operations of our clients’ businesses and have other adverse impacts on our business or the business of our clients.

In addition, the products, services and software that we provide to our clients, or the third-party components we use to provide such products, services and software, may unintentionally contain or introduce cybersecurity threats or vulnerabilities to our clients’ information technology networks. Our clients may maintain their own proprietary, sensitive, or confidential information that could be compromised in a cybersecurity attack, or their systems may be disabled or disrupted as a result of such an attack. Our clients, regulators, or other third parties may attempt to hold us liable for any such losses or damages resulting from such an attack, including through contractual indemnification clauses.

Like other global companies, we and our clients, suppliers, alliance partners (including numerous cloud service providers) and other vendors we interact with face threats to data and systems, including by nation state threat actors, insider threats (including inappropriate access), perpetrators of random or targeted malicious cyberattacks, computer viruses, malware, worms, bot attacks or other destructive or disruptive software and attempts to misappropriate client information and cause system failures and disruptions. For example, in April 2020, we announced a security incident involving a Maze ransomware attack. The attack resulted in unauthorized access to certain data and caused significant disruption to our business. In addition, recent international tensions (including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East) have heightened the overall risk of cyber-threats and, while we have taken steps to mitigate such risks, those steps may not be successful.

A security compromise of our information systems, or of those of businesses with which we interact, that results in confidential information being accessed by unauthorized or improper persons, could harm our reputation and expose us to regulatory actions, up to and including criminal prosecution, client attrition due to reputational concerns or otherwise, containment and remediation expenses, and claims brought by our clients or others for breaching contractual confidentiality and security provisions or data protection laws. Monetary damages imposed on us could be significant and may impose costs in excess of insurance policy limits or not be covered by our insurance at all, and our insurers may not continue to provide coverage on reasonable terms or may disclaim coverage as to any future claims. Techniques used by bad actors to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems continuously evolve and may not immediately produce signs of intrusion, and we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. In addition, a security breach could require that we expend substantial additional resources related to the security of our information systems, diverting resources from other projects and disrupting our businesses.

Our clients, suppliers, subcontractors, and other third parties with whom we do business, including in particular cloud service providers and software vendors, generally face similar cybersecurity threats, and we must rely on the safeguards

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adopted by these parties. If these third parties do not have adequate safeguards or their safeguards fail, it might result in breaches of our systems or applications and unauthorized access to or disclosure of our and our clients’ confidential data. In addition, we are subject to vulnerabilities in third-party technology components we use in our business and are typically not aware of such vulnerabilities until we receive notice from the third parties who have created the exposure. Due to this delay, our responses to such vulnerabilities may not be adequate or prompt enough to prevent their exploitation.

Any remediation measures that we have taken or that we may undertake in the future in response to the security incident announced in April 2020 or other security threats may be insufficient to prevent future attacks or insufficient for us to quickly recover from any future attack to efficiently continue our business operations.

Failure to comply with data security and privacy regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business operations and operating results.

We are required to comply with increasingly complex and changing data security and privacy regulations in the United States, the EU, India and in other jurisdictions in which we operate. These laws regulate the collection, use and transfer of personal data and can include significant financial penalties for noncompliance. We may also face audits or investigations by one or more domestic or foreign government agencies or our customers pursuant to our contractual obligations relating to our compliance with these regulations. Despite positive developments, such as the new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, which provides a mechanism for the transfer of personal data from the EU to the United States, there remains regulatory uncertainty for businesses transferring data globally. New rules and restrictions on the movement of data across national borders could increase compliance costs, as well as the risk of regulatory enforcement action (including potential financial penalties), private lawsuits, reputational damage, blockage of international data transfers, disruption to business and loss of customers.

In the United States, federal sectoral laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, alongside growing state level legislation impose or will impose extensive privacy requirements on organizations that handle personal data. Proposals for federal comprehensive privacy legislation continue and other new state laws are under consideration. In India, the DPDP was approved on August 11, 2023 and is expected to come into effect in phases over the next 6-12 months. The DPDP is designed to encourage growth in the technology sector; however, much detail (including on requirements for cross border transfers) has been left to subordinate legislation which will be prescribed by the executive arm of the government.The DPDP limits penalties that can be imposed to 2.5 billion Indian rupees or approximately $30 million. Other countries have enacted or are considering enacting privacy or data localization laws that require certain data to stay within their borders. Developing new regulations in AI and data use more broadly continue to add to the complexity of the legal environment and managing the privacy elements of these new rules will be critical to our ability to serve our customers as well as to achieve operational efficiencies. Complying with these changing regulatory requirements that apply to us directly or indirectly from our impacted customers requires us to incur substantial costs, exposes us to potential regulatory action or litigation, and may require changes to our business practices in certain jurisdictions, any of which could materially adversely affect our business operations and operating results.

Pandemics, epidemics or other outbreaks of disease have had and may in the future have a material adverse impact upon our business, liquidity, results of operations and financial condition.

Any pandemic, epidemic or other outbreak of disease may have, widespread, rapidly evolving, and unpredictable impacts on global society, economies, financial markets and business practices by, among other things, causing significant loss of life, curtailing congregation of people and disrupting communications and travel. Such events may have a material adverse impact upon, our business, liquidity, results of operations and financial condition, including as a result of the following:

•Reduced client demand for services – Pandemics, epidemics, or other outbreaks of disease could reduce demand for our services, particularly in regions or industries that are significantly impacted by such events. The vast majority of our business is with clients in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe, all regions that were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and could be impacted by other future outbreaks of disease.

•Delivery challenges – We could face closures of our clients' facilities that materially impair our ability to deliver services to our clients and satisfy contractually agreed upon service levels during pandemics, epidemics, or other outbreaks of disease. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in India, but also in the Philippines and other countries where we have near-shore or offshore delivery operations for clients, as well as our in-country offices and offices of clients where our employees may normally work, impacted our ability to deliver services to clients.

•Increased strain on employees and management – The significant challenges presented by a pandemic or other outbreak of disease, such as the potentially life-threatening health risks to employees and their loved ones and the unavailability of various services our employees may rely upon, such as childcare, may be a cause of employee morale concerns and may adversely impact employee productivity, as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing

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these employee morale and productivity concerns as well as other significant challenges presented by such events, including various business continuity measures demands significant management time and attention.

The ultimate extent to which any future pandemics, epidemics or other outbreaks of disease impact our business, liquidity, results of operations and financial condition will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the severity of the disease to which the pandemic, epidemic or other outbreak relates; delivery, adoption and effectiveness of vaccines or other treatments for the disease, including any variants; the duration and extent of the event and waves of infection; travel restrictions and social distancing; the duration and extent of business closures and business disruptions; and the effectiveness of actions taken to contain, treat and prevent the disease. If we or our clients experience prolonged shutdowns or other business disruptions, our business, liquidity, results of operations, financial condition and the trading price of our common stock may be materially adversely affected, and our ability to access the capital markets may be limited. Further, any future pandemic, epidemic or other outbreak of disease, and the volatile regional and global economic conditions stemming from such an event, could precipitate or amplify the other risk factors that we identify in this report, any of which could have a material adverse impact to our business.

Climate change and risks arising from the transition to a lower-carbon economy may impact our business.

There are inherent climate-related risks everywhere that we conduct our business. Developments related to regulatory, social or market dynamics, stakeholder expectations, national and international climate change policies, the actual or perceived frequency or intensity of extreme weather events or the availability and functionality of critical infrastructure and resources, in addition to other factors resulting from such developments or that may not otherwise be known to or anticipated by us, could significantly disrupt our supply chain, our clients' operations and our ability to deliver services. Such events could significantly increase our costs and expenses and harm our revenues, cash flows and financial performance. Further, natural disasters and adverse weather events, such as droughts, wildfires, storms, sea-level rise and flooding, occurring more frequently, with less predictability or with greater intensity, could cause community disruptions and impact our employees’ abilities to commute or to work from home safely and effectively. For example, we have substantial global delivery operations in Chennai, India, a city that has experienced severe rains and related flooding. Our exposure to these economic and other risks from climate change could be exacerbated if government or market action to address climate change and its effects is insufficient or unsuccessful.

Failure to meet ESG expectations or standards or achieve our ESG commitments could adversely affect our business or damage our reputation.

Our failure or perceived failure to achieve our ESG commitments, maintain ESG practices, or meet evolving stakeholder expectations could harm our reputation, adversely impact our ability to attract and retain clients and employees, and expose us to increased scrutiny from the investment community and enforcement authorities. Our ability to achieve our ESG commitments is subject to numerous risks, many of which are outside of our control. Examples of such risks include the availability and cost of low- or non-carbon based energy sources and technologies and the availability of suppliers that can meet our ESG and other standards. Our reputation also may be harmed by the perceptions that our stakeholders have about our action or inaction on certain ESG-related issues, or because they may disagree with our goals and initiatives. Damage to our reputation may reduce demand for our services and thus have an adverse effect on our future financial performance, as well as require additional resources to rebuild our reputation.

In addition, governmental bodies, investors, clients, businesses, employees and potential employees are increasingly focused on ESG issues, including climate change, diversity and inclusion, human rights and supply-chain issues, which has resulted and may in the future continue to result in the adoption of new laws and regulations, reporting requirements and changing bid and buying practices. Further, we are subject to, and expect to become increasingly subject to, laws, regulations and international treaties relating to climate change, such as carbon pricing or product energy efficiency requirements. As these new laws, regulations, treaties and similar initiatives and programs continue to be adopted and implemented, we will be required to comply or potentially face market access limitations, enforcement actions, civil suits or sanctions, including fines. If new laws or regulations are more stringent than current legal or regulatory requirements, we may experience increased compliance burdens and costs to meet such obligations. If we fail to comply with new laws, regulations, treaties, or reporting requirements, our reputation and business could be adversely impacted.

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If our risk management, business continuity and disaster recovery plans are not effective and our global delivery capabilities are impacted, our business and results of operations may be materially adversely affected and we may suffer harm to our reputation.

Our business model is dependent on our global delivery capabilities, which include coordination between our delivery centers in India, our other global and regional delivery centers, the offices of our clients and our associates worldwide. System failures, outages and operational disruptions may be caused by factors outside of our control, such as hostilities (including the ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East), political unrest, terrorist attacks, cybersecurity incidents, power or water shortages or telecommunications failures, natural or man-made disasters or other catastrophic events (including extreme weather conditions and other events that may be caused or exacerbated by climate change), and public health emergencies, epidemics and pandemics, affecting the geographies where our people, equipment and clients are located. Our risk management, business continuity and disaster recovery plans may not be effective at predicting or mitigating the effects of such disruptions, particularly in the case of catastrophic events or longer term, increasingly severe developments that may occur as a result of climate change. Even if our operations are unaffected or recover quickly from any such events, if our clients cannot timely resume their own operations due to a catastrophic event, they may reduce or terminate our services, which may adversely affect our results of operations. Any such disruption may result in lost revenues, a loss of clients, liabilities relating to disruptions in service, expenditures to repair or replace damaged property and reputational damage, and could demand significant management time and attention, any of which would have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Legal, Regulatory and Legislative Risks

A substantial portion of our employees in the United States, United Kingdom, EU and other jurisdictions rely on visas to work in those areas such that any restrictions on such visas or immigration more generally or increased costs of obtaining such visas or increases in the wages we are required to pay employees on visas may affect our ability to compete for and provide services to clients in these jurisdictions, which could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

A substantial portion of our employees in the United States and in many other jurisdictions, including countries in Europe, rely upon temporary work authorization or work permits, which makes our business particularly vulnerable to changes and variations in immigration laws and regulations, including written changes and policy changes to the manner in which the laws and regulations are interpreted or enforced, and potential enforcement actions and penalties that might cause us to lose access to such visas. The political environment in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries in recent years has included significant support for anti-immigrant legislation and administrative changes. Many of these recent changes have resulted in, and various proposed changes may result in, increased difficulty in obtaining timely visas that could impact our ability to staff projects, including as a result of visa application rejections and delays in processing applications, and significantly increased costs for us in obtaining visas or as a result of prevailing wage requirements for our employees on visas. The current U.S. administration has continued to explore visa and immigration reform and there continues to be political support for potential new laws and regulations relating to visas or immigration and the implementation of these or similar measures in the future may have a material adverse impact on companies like ours that have a substantial percentage of our employees on visas. Our principal operating subsidiary in the United States utilizes a high number of skilled workers holding H-1B and L-1 visas and, as a result, may be subject to increased costs if any such laws, regulations, policy changes or executive orders go into effect. In the EU, many countries continue to implement new regulations to move into compliance with the EU Directive of 2014 to harmonize immigration rules for intracompany transferees in most EU member states and to facilitate the transfer of managers, specialists and graduate trainees both into and within the region. The changes have had significant impact on mobility programs and have led to new notification and documentation requirements for companies sending employees to EU countries. Recent changes or any additional adverse revisions to immigration laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate may cause us delays, staffing shortages, additional costs or an inability to bid for or fulfill projects for clients, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Anti-outsourcing legislation, if adopted, and negative perceptions associated with offshore outsourcing could impair our ability to serve our clients and materially adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The practice of outsourcing services to organizations operating in other countries is a topic of political discussion in the United States, which is our largest market, as well as other regions in which we have clients. For example, in the United States, measures aimed at limiting or restricting the performance of services from an offshore location or imposing burdens on U.S. companies that utilize such services have been put forward for consideration at both the federal and state levels to address concerns over the perceived association between offshore outsourcing and the loss of jobs domestically. If any such measure is enacted in the United States or another region in which we have clients, our ability to provide services to our clients could be impaired.

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In addition, from time to time there has been publicity about purported negative experiences associated with offshore outsourcing, such as alleged domestic job loss and theft and misappropriation of sensitive client data, particularly involving service providers in India. Current or prospective clients may elect to perform certain services themselves or may be discouraged from utilizing global service delivery providers like us due to negative perceptions that may be associated with using global service delivery models or firms. Any slowdown or reversal of existing industry trends toward global service delivery would seriously harm our ability to compete effectively with competitors that provide the majority of their services from within the country in which our clients operate.

We are subject to numerous and evolving legal and regulatory requirements and client expectations in the many jurisdictions in which we operate, and violations of, unfavorable changes in or an inability to meet such requirements or expectations could harm our business.

We provide services to clients and have operations in many parts of the world and in a wide variety of different industries, subjecting us to numerous, evolving, and sometimes conflicting, laws and regulations on matters as diverse as trade controls and sanctions, immigration (including temporary work authorizations or work permits), content requirements, trade restrictions, tariffs, taxation, antitrust laws, anti-money laundering and anti-corruption laws (including the FCPA and the U.K. Bribery Act), the environment, including climate change regulation and reporting requirements, government affairs, internal and disclosure control obligations, data privacy, intellectual property, employment and labor relations, human rights and AI. We face significant regulatory compliance costs and risks as a result of the size and breadth of our business. For example, we may experience increased costs in 2024 and future years for employment and post-employment benefits in India as a result of the issuance of the Code on Social Security, 2020, which enhanced social security coverage (a portion of which is paid by the employer) and extended such benefits to all workers.

We are also subject to a wide range of potential enforcement actions, audits or investigations regarding our compliance with these laws or regulations in the conduct of our business, and any finding of a violation could subject us to a wide range of civil or criminal penalties, including fines, debarment, or suspension or disqualification from government contracting, prohibitions or restrictions on doing business in one or more jurisdictions, loss of clients and business, legal claims by clients and unfavorable publicity or damage to our reputation. We could also face significant compliance and operational burdens and incur significant costs in our efforts to comply with or rectify non-compliance with these laws or regulations. Such burdens or costs may result in an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We commit significant financial and managerial resources to comply with our internal control over financial reporting requirements, but we have in the past identified and may in the future identify material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that cause us to incur incremental remediation costs in order to maintain adequate controls.

Our employees, subcontractors, vendors, agents, alliance partners, the companies we acquire and their employees, vendors and agents, and other third parties with which we associate, could take actions that violate policies or procedures designed to promote legal and regulatory compliance or applicable anticorruption laws or regulations. Violations of these laws or regulations by us, our employees or any of these third parties could subject us to criminal or civil enforcement actions (whether or not we participated or knew about the actions leading to the violations), including fines or penalties, disgorgement of profits and suspension or disqualification from work, including U.S. federal contracting, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, including our results of operations and our reputation.

Changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, failure by us to adapt our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements or adverse outcomes of tax audits, investigations or proceedings could have a material adverse effect on our effective tax rate, results of operations and financial condition.

The interpretation of tax laws and regulations in the many jurisdictions in which we operate and the related tax accounting principles are complex and require considerable judgment to determine our income taxes and other tax liabilities worldwide. Tax laws and regulations affecting us and our clients, including applicable tax rates, and the interpretation and enforcement of such laws and regulations are subject to change as a result of economic, political and other factors, and any such changes or changes in tax accounting principles could increase our effective worldwide income tax rate and have a material adverse effect on our net income, cash flows and financial condition. We routinely review and update our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements, including transfer pricing policies, consistent with applicable laws and regulations, to align with our evolving business operations across the numerous jurisdictions, such as the United States, India and the United Kingdom, in which we operate. Failure to successfully adapt our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements to align with our evolving business operations may increase our worldwide effective tax rate and have a material adverse effect on our earnings, cash flows and financial condition.

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Our worldwide effective income tax rate may increase or our financial condition may be materially impacted as a result of developments, changes in interpretations and assumptions made, additional guidance that may be issued and ongoing and future actions the Company has or may take with respect to our corporate structure and intercompany arrangements. For example, our cash flows could be materially affected by the issuance of additional interpretive guidance by the U.S. Treasury regarding the capitalization and amortization of research and experimental expenses for tax purposes, as more fully described in Note 11 to the consolidated financial statements.

Additionally, we are subject to routine tax audits, investigations and proceedings in various jurisdictions. Tax authorities have disagreed, and may in the future disagree, with our judgments, and are taking increasingly aggressive positions, including with respect to our intercompany transactions. For example, we are currently involved in an ongoing dispute with the ITD in which the ITD asserts that we owe additional taxes for two transactions by which CTS India repurchased shares from its shareholders, as more fully described in Note 11 to the consolidated financial statements. We may not accurately predict the outcomes of these audits, investigations and proceedings and the amounts ultimately paid upon their resolution could be materially different from the amounts previously included in our income tax provision. Adverse outcomes in any such audits, investigations or proceedings could increase our tax exposure and cause us to incur increased expense, which could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

Our business subjects us to considerable potential exposure to litigation and legal claims and could be materially adversely affected if we incur legal liability.

We are subject to, and may become a party to, a variety of litigation or other claims and suits that arise from time to time in the conduct of our business. Our business is subject to the risk of litigation involving current and former employees, clients, alliance partners, subcontractors, suppliers, competitors, shareholders, government agencies or others through private actions, class actions, whistleblower claims, administrative proceedings, regulatory actions or other litigation. While we maintain insurance for certain potential liabilities, such insurance does not cover all types and amounts of potential liabilities and is subject to various exclusions as well as deductibles and caps on amounts recoverable.

Our client engagements expose us to significant potential legal liability and litigation expense if we fail to meet our contractual obligations or otherwise breach obligations to third parties or if our subcontractors breach or dispute the terms of our agreements with them and impede our ability to meet our obligations to our clients. For example, third parties could claim that we or our clients, whom we typically contractually agree to indemnify with respect to the services and solutions we provide, infringe upon their IP rights. Any such claims of IP infringement could harm our reputation, cause us to incur substantial costs in defending ourselves, expose us to considerable legal liability or prevent us from offering some services or solutions in the future. We may have to engage in legal action to protect our own IP rights, and enforcing our rights may require considerable time, money and oversight, and existing laws in the various countries in which we provide services or solutions may offer only limited protection.

We also face considerable potential legal liability from a variety of other sources. Our acquisition activities have in the past and may in the future be subject to litigation or other claims, including claims from employees, clients, stockholders, or other third parties. We have also been the subject of a number of putative securities class action complaints and putative shareholder derivative complaints relating to the matters that were the subject of our now concluded internal investigation into potential violations of the FCPA and other applicable laws, and may be subject to such legal actions for these or other matters in the future. See "Part I, Item 3. Legal Proceedings" for more information. We establish reserves for these and other matters when a loss is considered probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated; however, the estimation of legal reserves and possible losses involves significant judgment and may not reflect the full range of uncertainties and unpredictable outcomes inherent in litigation, and the actual losses arising from particular matters may exceed our estimates and materially adversely affect our results of operations.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

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Item 1C. Cybersecurity

Risk Management and Strategy

Cybersecurity risk management is an integral part of our overall enterprise risk management program. Our cybersecurity risk management program, which is managed by Cognizant’s Corporate Security team, is designed to identify, assess and manage risks from cybersecurity threats and provides a framework for handling cybersecurity threats and incidents. The program is also aligned with the risk assessment framework that has been established by the enterprise risk management team.

Our cybersecurity risk management framework includes steps for assessing the severity of a cybersecurity threat (including an escalation process for potentially material cybersecurity threats and incidents to an internal committee comprised of members of senior management), identifying the source of a cybersecurity threat (including whether the cybersecurity threat is associated with a third-party service provider), implementing cybersecurity countermeasures and mitigation strategies. The internal committee is responsible for assessing the materiality of cybersecurity threats and incidents and informs designated members of executive leadership and of the Board of Directors of material cybersecurity threats and incidents.

Cognizant's cyber risk management program is periodically audited as part of external certification audits. We also engage third-party cybersecurity experts to assist with risk assessment and conduct penetration testing among other items. Key findings from the audits and third-party risk assessments are summarized and communicated to the Company’s senior leadership and the Audit Committee, and remediation actions are implemented to enhance our overall cybersecurity program.

We require our vendors to comply with privacy and cybersecurity requirements, and we perform risk assessments of vendors, including their ability to protect data from unauthorized access. We include data protection and security content as part of annual training required of employees.

In 2023, we did not identify any cybersecurity threats that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. In 2020, we experienced a previously-disclosed cybersecurity incident that resulted in unauthorized access to certain data and caused significant disruptions to our business operations. In response, we engaged leading outside forensics and cybersecurity experts, launched a comprehensive containment and remediation effort and forensic investigation, restored the security of our internal systems and networks and adopted various enhancements to the security of our systems and networks.

Governance

As part of our overall enterprise risk management program, we prioritize the identification and management of cybersecurity risk at several levels. Our Board of Directors has overall oversight responsibility for our risk management, and delegates cybersecurity risk management oversight to the Audit Committee, which is responsible for ensuring that management has processes in place designed to identify and evaluate cybersecurity risks and implement processes and programs to manage cybersecurity risks and mitigate cybersecurity incidents. The Audit Committee previously utilized an IT Cybersecurity Subcommittee, comprised of members of the Audit Committee, to assist in carrying out a portion of these responsibilities. In December 2023, the Audit Committee transitioned away from use of the subcommittee structure. At all times, the full Audit Committee has maintained and continues to maintain oversight responsibility for cybersecurity risk management.

Management is responsible for identifying, considering and assessing material cybersecurity risks on an ongoing basis, establishing processes to ensure that such potential cybersecurity risk exposures are monitored, putting in place appropriate mitigation measures and maintaining cybersecurity programs.

Our cyber risk assessment program is managed by our Corporate Security team, which is led by our CSO, who has over 25 years of experience in the cybersecurity and technology industry. The CSO reports to Cognizant's Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and Secretary. The CSO manages multiple teams within Corporate Security that are operationally responsible for the security of the Company, including Global Cyber Operations, Business Information Security, Global Business Resilience and Integrated Risk Management, each of which provides regular updates to the CSO regarding cyber threat intelligence, cyber incidents and cyber risk metrics as part of their security responsibilities. The CSO works closely with the CIO, who is responsible for Cognizant's information technology and digital transformation strategy. Together, the CSO and CIO have a mutual set of responsibilities to align, implement, and govern security policies, standards, and technology controls throughout the enterprise. On a periodic basis, the CSO and CIO provide updates to the Audit Committee on, among other things, key cybersecurity metrics, status of projects to strengthen the Company's information security systems and assessments of the Company's security program. The Audit Committee reports to the Board of Directors, which also receives periodic updates on such matters.

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Item 2. Properties

We have operations in major metro areas across nearly 50 countries around the world, with our worldwide headquarters located in a leased facility in Teaneck, New Jersey in the United States. We utilize a global delivery model with delivery centers worldwide, including in-country, regional and global delivery centers. We have over 24 million square feet of owned and leased facilities for our delivery centers. Our largest delivery center presence is in India, representing 90% of our total delivery centers on a square-foot basis, with the largest presence in Chennai (9 million square feet), Hyderabad (3 million square feet), Pune (3 million square feet), Kolkata (3 million square feet) and Bangalore (2 million square feet). We also have a significant number of delivery centers in other countries, including the United States, Philippines, Germany, Canada, Mexico and countries throughout Europe. In addition, we have sales and marketing offices, innovation labs, and digital design and consulting centers in major business markets, including New York, London, Paris, Melbourne, and Singapore, among others. Our facilities are used to support clients across all four reportable business segments.

We believe our current facilities are adequate to support our operations in the immediate future, and that we will be able to obtain suitable additional facilities on commercially reasonable terms as needed.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

See Note 15 to our consolidated financial statements.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our Class A common stock trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol “CTSH.” As of December 31, 2023, the number of holders of record of our Class A common stock was 102 and the approximate number of beneficial holders of our Class A common stock was 575,000.

Cash Dividends

During 2023, we paid quarterly cash dividends of $0.29 per share, or $1.16 per share in total for the year. In February 2024, our Board of Directors approved a cash dividend of $0.30 per share with a record date of February 20, 2024 and a payment date of February 28, 2024. We intend to continue to pay quarterly cash dividends in accordance with our capital allocation framework. Future dividend payments depend on a variety of factors, including our cash flow generated from operations, cash and investment balances, net income, overall liquidity position, potential alternative uses of cash, such as acquisitions, and anticipated future economic conditions and financial results.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our stock repurchase program, as amended in November 2022, allows for the repurchase of up to $11.5 billion, excluding fees and expenses, of our Class A common stock through open market purchases, including under a 10b5-1 Plan in accordance with applicable federal securities laws. The repurchase program does not have an expiration date and had a remaining balance of $1,777 million as of December 31, 2023. The timing of repurchases and the exact number of shares to be purchased are determined by management, in its discretion, or pursuant to a 10b5-1 Plan, and depend upon market conditions and other factors.

During the three months ended December 31, 2023, we repurchased $298 million of our Class A common stock under our stock repurchase program as follows:

We regularly purchase shares in connection with our stock-based compensation plans as shares of our Class A common stock are tendered by employees for payment of applicable statutory tax withholdings. For the three months ended December 31, 2023, we purchased 0.2 million shares at an aggregate cost of $15 million in connection with employee tax withholding obligations.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.

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Performance Graph

The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our Class A common stock with the cumulative total return on the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Information Technology Index for the period beginning December 31, 2018 and ending on the last day of our last completed fiscal year. The stock performance shown on the graph below is not indicative of future price performance.

COMPARISON OF CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN(1)(2)

Among Cognizant, the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Information Technology Index

(1)Graph assumes $100 invested on December 31, 2018 in our Class A common stock, the S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Information Technology Index.

(2)Cumulative total return assumes reinvestment of dividends.

Item 6. [Reserved]

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Executive Summary

Cognizant is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, engineering modern businesses and delivering strategic outcomes for our clients. We help clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stay ahead in a fast-changing world. We provide industry expertise and close client collaboration, combining critical perspective with a flexible engagement style. We tailor our services and solutions to specific industries with an integrated global delivery model that employs client service and delivery teams based at client locations and dedicated global and regional delivery centers. Our collaborative services include digital services and solutions, consulting, application development, systems integration, quality engineering and assurance, application maintenance, infrastructure and security as well as business process services and automation. Digital services continue to be an important part of our portfolio, aligning with our clients' focus on becoming data-enabled, customer-centric and differentiated businesses.

In the second quarter of 2023, we initiated the NextGen program aimed at simplifying our operating model, optimizing corporate functions and consolidating and realigning office space to reflect the post-pandemic hybrid work environment. Our drive for simplification includes operating with fewer layers in an effort to enhance agility and enable faster decision making. We expect the savings generated by the program to help fund continued investments in our people, revenue growth opportunities and the modernization of our office space.

In connection with the NextGen program, in 2023 we incurred $115 million of employee separation costs and $114 million of facility exit and other costs totaling $229 million. See Note 4 to our audited consolidated financial statements. We currently expect to incur total costs of approximately $300 million with approximately $70 million of such costs anticipated in 2024. The estimates of the charges and expenditures that we expect to incur in connection with the NextGen program, and the timing thereof, are subject to a number of assumptions, including local law requirements in various jurisdictions, and actual amounts may differ materially from estimates. In addition, we may incur other charges or cash expenditures not currently contemplated due to unanticipated events that may occur in connection with the NextGen program.

2023 Financial Results1

Revenues

Income from Operations

Operating Margin

Diluted EPS

GAAP Adjusted1

GAAP Adjusted1

GAAP Adjusted1

1 Adjusted Income From Operations, Adjusted Operating Margin, Adjusted Diluted EPS and constant currency revenue growth are not measurements of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

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During the year ended December 31, 2023, revenues decreased by $75 million as compared to the year ended December 31, 2022, representing a decrease of 0.4%, or a decrease of 0.3% on a constant currency basis2. Revenue decline was driven by our Financial Services segment, which was negatively impacted by weakness in the banking sector, partially offset by growth in our Communications, Media and Technology, Products and Resources and Health Sciences segments. Our recently completed acquisitions contributed 110 basis points to revenue growth, primarily benefiting our Products and Resources and Communications, Media and Technology segments.

Our operating margin and Adjusted Operating Margin2 was 13.9% and 15.1%, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2023. This compares to operating margin and Adjusted Operating Margin of 15.3% for the year ended December 31, 2022. Our 2023 GAAP and Adjusted Operating Margins were negatively impacted by increased compensation costs, primarily as a result of two merit increase cycles for the majority of our employees since October 2022, partially offset by the benefit of the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar, savings generated from our NextGen program and improvement in profitability of a large contract with a Health Sciences client in 2023. In addition, as discussed in Note 4 to our audited consolidated financial statements, our 2023 GAAP operating margin was negatively impacted by the NextGen charges, which were excluded from our Adjusted Operating Margin.

As a global professional services company, we compete on the basis of the knowledge, experience, insights, skills and talent of our employees and the value they can provide to our clients. We closely monitor attrition trends focusing on the metric that we believe is most relevant to our business. This metric, which we refer to as Voluntary Attrition - Tech Services, includes all voluntary separations with the exception of employees in our Intuitive Operations and Automation practice. For the year ended December 31, 2023 our Voluntary Attrition - Tech Services was 13.8% as compared to 25.6% for the year ended December 31, 2022. We finished 2023 with approximately 347,700 employees as compared to 355,300 employees at the end of 2022.

Business Outlook

See "Overview" within Part I, Item 1. Business for information on our six strategic priorities.

We continue to expect the long-term focus of our clients to be on their digital transformation into software-driven, data-enabled, customer-centric and differentiated businesses.We believe clients will continue to contend with industry-specific changes driven by evolving digital technologies, uncertainty in the regulatory environment, industry consolidation and convergence as well as international trade policies and other macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, including the increasing uncertainty related to the global economy, which has affected and may continue to affect their demand for our services.

We are focused on expanding our partner ecosystem across a broad range of technology companies, including hyperscalers, cloud providers, enterprise software companies, best-in-class digital software enterprises and emerging start-ups. We believe this partner ecosystem will enable us to enhance our innovative, integrated offerings, by combining third-party products with our service solutions, to deliver enterprise-wide digital transformation.

We increasingly use AI-based technologies, including GenAI, in our client offerings and our own internal operations. AI technologies and services are part of a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market. We plan to make significant investments in our AI capabilities to meet the needs of our clients and harness its value in a flexible, secure, scalable and responsible way. As AI-based technologies evolve, we expect that some services that we currently perform for our clients will be replaced by AI or forms of automation. This may lead to reduced demand for certain services or harm our ability to obtain favorable pricing or other terms for our services.

In connection with the NextGen program, in 2023 we incurred $229 million in employee separation, facility exit and other costs. We currently expect to incur total costs of approximately $300 million in connection with the NextGen program, with approximately $70 million of such costs anticipated in 2024. In addition to the NextGen program, potential tax law and other regulatory changes, including possible U.S. corporate income tax reform and potentially increased costs for employment and post-employment benefits in India as a result of the Code on Social Security, 2020, among other items, may impact our future results. For additional information, see Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors.

2 Adjusted Operating Margin and constant currency revenue growth are not measurements of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

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Results of Operations

For a discussion of our results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2021, including a year-to-year comparison between 2022 and 2021, refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The Year Ended December 31, 2023 Compared to The Year Ended December 31, 2022

The following table sets forth certain financial data for the years ended December 31:

% of % of Increase / Decrease

(Dollars in millions, except per share data) 2023 Revenues 2022 Revenues $ %

Restructuring charges 229 1.2 — — 229 N/A

Income (loss) from equity method investments 7 4 3 75.0

Other Financial Information 3

(a) Exclusive of depreciation and amortization expense

N/A Not applicable3

Revenues

During the year ended December 31, 2023, revenues declined by $75 million as compared to the twelve months ended December 31, 2022, representing a decline of 0.4%, or a decline of 0.3% on a constant currency basis.3Our recently completed acquisitions contributed 110 basis points of growth to the change in revenues.

3 Adjusted Income from Operations, Adjusted Operating Margin, Adjusted Diluted EPS and constant currency revenue growth are not measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, as applicable.

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Revenues - Reportable Business Segments and Geographic Markets

Revenues of $19,353 million across our business segments and geographies were as follows for the year ended December 31, 2023:

2023 as compared to 2022 Increase / (Decrease)

(Dollars in millions) $ % CC %4

Financial Services $ (263) (4.3) (4.2)

Products and Resources 62 1.4 1.5

Total revenues $ (75) (0.4) (0.3)

2023 as compared to 2022 Increase / (Decrease)

(Dollars in millions) $ % CC %4

Total revenues $ (75) (0.4) (0.3)

Change in revenues was driven by the following factors:

•Reduced demand for discretionary work negatively impacted revenues across all segments, and primarily in North America. Banking clients in our Financial Services segment, retail and consumer goods clients in our Products and Resources segment and clients in our Communications, Media and Technology segment were particularly affected;

•Recently completed acquisitions which contributed 110 basis points of growth to the overall change in revenues, including 230 basis points of growth to our Products and Resources segment (primarily in North America) and 290 basis points of growth to our Communications, Media and Technology segment (primarily in Continental Europe and the United Kingdom);

•North America revenues in the Communications, Media and Technology segment included growing demand among the largest clients in this segment, including for services related to digital content;

•The resale of third-party products in North America in connection with our integrated offerings strategy, primarily in the Financial Services and Products and Resources segments, contributed 70 basis points of growth to the overall change in revenue;

•North America revenues in the Communications, Media and Technology and Products and Resources segments were positively impacted by the ramp up of several recently won large deals;

•Revenue growth in the United Kingdom was driven by expansion of work public sector clients included in our Communications, Media and Technology and Financial Services segments;

•Revenues in the Continental Europe region were driven by increased demand from pharmaceutical clients within the Health Sciences segment and automotive clients within the Products and Resources segment; and

•Revenue decline in our Rest of World region was primarily driven by weakness in the Financial Services segment and the negative impact of foreign currency exchange rate movements.

4 Constant currency revenue growth is not a measure of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information.

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Cost of Revenues (Exclusive of Depreciation and Amortization Expense)

é 1.3% as a % of revenues

¡ % of Revenues

Our cost of revenues consists primarily of salaries, incentive-based compensation, stock-based compensation expense, employee benefits, project-related immigration and travel for technical personnel, subcontracting and costs of third-party products and services relating to revenues. The increase, as a percentage of revenues, was due to higher compensation costs for delivery personnel, primarily as a result of two merit increase cycles for the majority of our employees since October 2022, partially offset by the benefit of the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar and improvement in profitability of a large contract with a Health Sciences client in 2023.

SG&A Expenses (Exclusive of Depreciation and Amortization Expense)

SG&A expenses consist primarily of salaries, incentive-based compensation, stock-based compensation expense, employee benefits, immigration, travel, marketing, communications, management, finance, administrative and occupancy costs. The decrease, as a percentage of revenues, was primarily due to savings generated from our NextGen program and the beneficial impact of foreign currency exchange rate movements, partially offset by higher compensation costs, primarily as a result of two merit increase cycles for the majority of our employees since October 2022.

ê 0.9% as a % of revenues

¡ % of Revenues

Restructuring Charges

Restructuring charges consist of costs related to the NextGen program. Restructuring charges were $229 million or 1.2%, as a percentage of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023. For further detail on our restructuring charges see Note 4 to our audited consolidated financial statements.

Depreciation and Amortization Expense

Depreciation and amortization expense decreased by 8.8%, and by 0.2% as a percentage of revenues, in 2023 as compared to 2022, primarily driven by a reduction in amortization expense due to certain intangible assets reaching the end of their useful lives and savings generated from our NextGen program.

Operating Margin and Adjusted Operating Margin5 - Overall

Our 2023 operating margin and Adjusted Operating Margin5 were negatively impacted by increased compensation costs, primarily as a result of two merit increase cycles for the majority of our employees since October 2022, partially offset by the benefit of the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar, savings generated from our NextGen program and improvement in profitability of a large contract with a Health Sciences client in 2023. In addition, as discussed in Note 4 to our audited consolidated financial statements, our 2023 GAAP operating margin was negatively impacted by the NextGen charges, which were excluded from our Adjusted Operating Margin5.

5 Adjusted Income From Operations and Adjusted Operating Margin are not measurements of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, as applicable.

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A predominant portion of our costs in India are denominated in the Indian rupee, representing approximately 24% of our global operating costs during the year ended December 31, 2023. These costs are subject to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, which have an impact on our results of operations. We enter into foreign exchange derivative contracts to hedge certain Indian rupee denominated payments in India. These hedges are intended to mitigate the volatility of the changes in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Indian rupee. Net of the impact of the hedges, the depreciation of the Indian rupee contributed 90 basis points to the improvement in our operating margin for the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to December 31, 2022.

Excluding the impact of applicable designated cash flow hedges, the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar positively impacted our operating margin by approximately 96 basis points in 2023. Each additional 1.0% change in exchange rate between the Indian rupee and the U.S. dollar will have the effect of moving our operating margin by approximately 19 basis points (excluding the impact of our cash flow hedges). In 2023, the settlement of our cash flow hedges negatively impacted our operating margin by approximately 13 basis points, compared to a negative impact of 7 basis points in 2022.

We finished the year ended December 31, 2023 with approximately 347,700 employees as compared to 355,300 employees for the year ended December 31, 2022. For the year ended December 31, 2023 our Voluntary Attrition - Tech Services was 13.8% as compared to 25.6% for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Segment Operating Profit

In 2023, we made certain changes to the internal measurement of segment operating profit for the purpose of evaluating segment performance and resource allocation. The primary reason for the change was to reflect a more complete cost of delivery. Specifically, segment operating profit now includes an allocation of both SG&A costs related to our integrated practices and the excess or shortfall of incentive-based compensation for commercial and delivery employees as compared to target, which were previously included in "unallocated costs." We have reported 2023 segment operating profits using the new allocation methodology and have recast the 2022 and 2021 results to conform to the new methodology. See Note 18 to our audited consolidated financial statements for the recast 2021 segment operating profits.

Segment operating profit and operating margin percentage were as follows:

Segment operating profit % Segment operating margin

In 2023, segment operating margins across all our segments were negatively impacted by increased compensation costs, primarily as a result of two merit increase cycles for the majority of our employees since October 2022, partially offset by the benefit of the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar and savings generated from our NextGen program. In addition, 2023 segment operating margin in Health Sciences benefited from the improvement in profitability of a large contract with a payer client, while segment operating profit in Communications, Media and Technology was negatively affected by higher costs typical to the initial phases of several recently won large deals in this segment.

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Total segment operating profit was as follows for the year ended December 31:

The increase in unallocated costs for 2023 as compared to 2022 was primarily driven by the NextGen charges in 2023, see Note 4 to our audited consolidated financial statements, partially offset by lower corporate expenses.

Other Income (Expense), Net

Total other income (expense), net consists primarily of foreign currency exchange gains and losses, interest income and interest expense. The following table sets forth total other income (expense), net for the years ended December 31:

(in millions) 2023 2022 Increase / Decrease

Foreign currency exchange gains (losses) $ 42 $ (16) $ 58

Foreign currency exchange gains (losses), net 2 7 (5)

Interest expense (41) (19) (22)

Total other income (expense), net $ 98 $ 48 $ 50

The foreign currency exchange losses were attributed to the remeasurement of net monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currencies of our subsidiaries. The gains on foreign exchange forward contracts not designated as hedging instruments related to the realized and unrealized gains and losses on contracts entered into to offset our foreign currency exposures. As of December 31, 2023, the notional value of our undesignated hedges was $1,317 million. The increase in interest income and interest expense was each primarily attributable to higher interest rates in the current period.

Provision for Income Taxes

¡ Effective Income Tax Rate ê 0.2%

The effective income tax rate decreased primarily driven by the geographical mix of earnings in 2023 as compared to 2022. See Note 11 to our consolidated financial statements for additional information.

In December 2021, the OECD adopted model rules for a global framework to impose a 15% global minimum tax referred to as Pillar Two with a targeted effective date of January 1, 2024. The OECD has continued and is continuing to issue additional guidance on the operation of the model rules. While the United States has not enacted Pillar Two, certain countries in which we operate have adopted their own version of the Pillar Two model rules. Although Management continues to monitor additional guidance from the OECD and countries’ implementation of Pillar Two, based on current guidance, we believe that our net income, cash flows, or financial condition will not be materially impacted by Pillar Two.

Net Income

The decrease in net income was primarily driven by lower income from operations, partially offset by higher interest income and lower provision for income taxes in 2023.

ê 0.8% as a % of revenues

¡ % of Revenues

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Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Portions of our disclosure include non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles and should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures should be read in conjunction with our financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. The reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures set forth below should be carefully evaluated.

Our non-GAAP financial measures Adjusted Operating Margin and Adjusted Income from Operations exclude unusual items, such as NextGen charges. Our non-GAAP financial measure Adjusted Diluted EPS excludes unusual items, such as NextGen charges and the effect of recognition in the third quarter of 2022 of an income tax benefit related to a specific uncertain tax position that was previously unrecognized in our prior-year consolidated financial statements, and net non-operating foreign currency exchange gains or losses and the tax impact of all the applicable adjustments. For further detail on the NextGen charges, see Note 4 to our audited consolidated financial statements. The income tax impact of each item excluded from Adjusted Diluted EPS is calculated by applying the statutory rate and local tax regulations in the jurisdiction in which the item was incurred. Constant currency revenue growth is defined as revenues for a given period restated at the comparative period’s foreign currency exchange rates measured against the comparative period's reported revenues. Free cash flow is defined as cash flows from operating activities net of purchases of property and equipment.

We believe providing investors with an operating view consistent with how we manage the Company provides enhanced transparency into our operating results. For internal management reporting and budgeting purposes, we use various GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures for financial and operational decision-making, to evaluate period-to-period comparisons, to determine portions of the compensation for executive officers and for making comparisons of our operating results to those of our competitors. We believe that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude certain costs, read in conjunction with our reported GAAP results and reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measure, as applicable, can provide useful supplemental information to our management and investors regarding financial and business trends relating to our financial condition and results of operations.

A limitation of using non-GAAP financial measures versus financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP is that non-GAAP financial measures do not reflect all of the amounts associated with our operating results as determined in accordance with GAAP and may exclude costs that are recurring such as net non-operating foreign currency exchange gains or losses. In addition, other companies may calculate non-GAAP financial measures differently than us, thereby limiting the usefulness of these non-GAAP financial measures as a comparative tool. We compensate for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from non-GAAP financial measures to allow investors to evaluate such non-GAAP financial measures.

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The following table presents a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure to the most comparable GAAP measure, as applicable, for the years ended December 31:

(Dollars in millions, except per share data) 2023 % ofRevenues 2022 % ofRevenues

GAAP income from operations and operating margin $ 2,689 13.9 % $ 2,968 15.3 %

NextGen charges (1) 229 1.2 — —

Effect of NextGen charges, pre-tax 0.45 —

Tax effect of above adjustments (3) (0.11) 0.07

Adjusted Diluted EPS $ 4.55 $ 4.40

Net cash provided by operating activities $ 2,330 $ 2,568

Purchases of property and equipment (317) (332)

(1) As part of the NextGen program, during the year ended December 31, 2023, we incurred employee separation, facility exit and other costs. See Note 4 to our audited consolidated financial statements for additional information.

(2) Non-operating foreign currency exchange gains and losses, inclusive of gains and losses on related foreign exchange forward contracts not designated as hedging instruments for accounting purposes, are reported in "Foreign currency exchange gains (losses), net" in our consolidated statements of operations.

(3) Presented below are the tax impacts of each of our non-GAAP adjustments to pre-tax income for the years ended December 31:

Non-GAAP income tax benefit (expense) related to:

NextGen charges $ 59 $ —

Foreign currency exchange gains and losses (6) (39)

The effective tax rate related to non-operating foreign currency exchange gains and losses varies depending on the jurisdictions in which such income and expenses are generated and the statutory rates applicable in those jurisdictions. As such, the income tax effect of non-operating foreign currency exchange gains and losses shown in the above table may not appear proportionate to the net pre-tax foreign currency exchange gains and losses reported in our consolidated statements of operations.

(4) As previously reported in our 2022 Annual Report on Form 10-K, during the three months ended September 30, 2022, we recognized an income tax benefit of $36 million related to a specific uncertain tax position that was previously unrecognized in our prior-year consolidated financial statements. The recognition of the benefit in the third quarter of 2022 was based on management’s reassessment regarding whether this unrecognized tax benefit met the more-likely-than-not threshold in light of the lapse in the statute of limitations as to a portion of such benefit.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources

Cash generated from operations has historically been our primary source of liquidity to fund operations and investments to grow our business. As of December 31, 2023, we had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $2,635 million. Additionally, as of December 31, 2023, we had available capacity under our credit facilities of approximately $2.0 billion.

The following table provides a summary of our cash flows for the years ended December 31:

(in millions) 2023 2022 Increase / Decrease

Net cash provided by (used in):

Other Cash Flow Information6

Operating activities6

The decrease in cash provided by operating activities in 2023 compared to 2022 was primarily driven by an increase in income tax payments. In 2023, we made tax payments related to the mandatory capitalization of research and experimental expenditures for the 2022 tax year of approximately $300 million as well as the estimated tax payments for 2023 of approximately $230 million. Cash provided by operating activities for 2023 benefited from improved collections of our trade accounts receivable as compared to 2022.

We monitor turnover, aging and the collection of trade accounts receivable by client. Our DSO calculation includes trade accounts receivable, net of allowance for credit losses, and contract assets, reduced by the uncollected portion of our deferred revenue. DSO was 77 days as of December 31, 2023, 74 days as of December 31, 2022 and 69 days as of December 31, 2021.

Investing activities

The increase in cash used in investing activities in 2023 compared to 2022 was primarily driven by lower net maturities of investments in 2023 as compared to 2022 and higher payments for business combinations in 2023.

Financing activities

The decrease in cash used in financing activities in 2023 compared to 2022 was primarily driven by lower repurchases of common stock.

We have a Credit Agreement providing for a $650 million Term Loan and a $1,850 million unsecured revolving credit facility, which are each due to mature in October 2027. We are required under the Credit Agreement to make scheduled quarterly principal payments on the Term Loan beginning in December 2023. See Note 10 to our consolidated financial statements. We believe that we currently meet all conditions set forth in the Credit Agreement to borrow thereunder, and we are not aware of any conditions that would prevent us from borrowing part or all of the remaining available capacity under the revolving credit facility as of December 31, 2023 and through the date of this filing. As of December 31, 2023, we had no outstanding balance on our revolving credit facility.

In March 2023, our India subsidiary renewed its working capital facility at 15 billion Indian rupee ($180 million at the December 31, 2023 exchange rate). This facility requires us to repay any balances drawn down within 90 days from the date of disbursement. There is a 1.0% prepayment penalty applicable to payments made within 30 days after disbursement. This working capital facility contains affirmative and negative covenants and may be renewed annually. As of December 31, 2023, we have not borrowed funds under this facility or any of its predecessor facilities.

6 Free cash flow is not a measurement of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information.

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Capital Allocation Framework

Acquisitions

Share repurchases

Dividend payments

Our capital allocation framework anticipates the deployment of approximately 50% of our free cash flow7 for acquisitions, 25% for share repurchases and 25% for dividend payments. We review our capital allocation on an ongoing basis, considering our financial performance and liquidity position, investments required to execute our strategic plans and initiatives, acquisition opportunities, the economic outlook, regulatory changes and other relevant factors. As these factors may change over time, the actual amounts expended on stock repurchase activity, dividends, and acquisitions, if any, during any particular period cannot be predicted and may fluctuate from time to time.

Other Liquidity and Capital Resources Information

We seek to ensure that our worldwide cash is available in the locations in which it is needed. As part of our ongoing liquidity assessments, we regularly monitor the mix of our domestic and international cash flows and cash balances. We evaluate on an ongoing basis what portion of the non-U.S. cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments is needed locally to execute our strategic plans and what amount is available for repatriation back to the United States.

We expect operating cash flows, cash and short-term investment balances, together with the available capacity under our revolving credit facilities, to be sufficient to meet our operating requirements, including purchase commitments, tax payments, including Tax Reform Act transition tax payments, and servicing our debt for the next twelve months. Our remaining Tax Reform Act transition tax payments are $123 million and $157 million in the years 2024 and 2025, respectively. In 2023, our Tax Reform Act transition tax payment was $94 million. In addition, we also have purchase commitments of approximately $615 million that will be paid over the next four years, of which approximately $180 million will be paid during the next twelve months. In addition, see Note 7 to our consolidated financial statements for a description of our operating lease obligations.

In connection with our ongoing dispute with the ITD, on January 8, 2024, the SCI ruled that, in order to proceed with our appeal, we must deposit 30 billion Indian rupees ($355 million at the December 31, 2023 exchange rate), representing the time deposits of CTS India under lien, on the condition that, if CTS India prevails at the High Court, the amount deposited will be returned to CTS India, along with interest accrued, within 4 weeks of the judgment. The SCI also requested the High Court to consider and dispose of the appeal as expeditiously as possible, preferably within 6 weeks of the January 8, 2024 ruling. We made the required deposit in January 2024. See Note 11 to our consolidated financial statements.

The ability to expand and grow our business in accordance with current plans, make acquisitions, meet long-term capital requirements beyond a twelve-month period and execute our capital return plan will depend on many factors, including the rate, if any, at which cash flow increases, our ability and willingness to pay for acquisitions with capital stock and the availability of public and private debt, including the ability to extend the maturity of or refinance our existing debt, and equity financing. We cannot be certain that additional financing, if required, will be available on terms and conditions acceptable to us, if at all.

Critical Accounting Estimates

Management’s discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our accompanying consolidated financial statements that have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. We base our estimates on historical experience, current trends and on various other assumptions that are believed to be relevant at the time our consolidated financial statements are prepared. We evaluate our estimates on a continuous basis. However, the actual amounts may differ from the estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

We believe the following accounting estimates are the most critical to aid in fully understanding and evaluating our consolidated financial statements as they require the most difficult, subjective or complex judgments, resulting from the need to make estimates about the effect of matters that are inherently uncertain. Changes to these estimates could have a material effect on our results of operations and financial condition. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements.

7 Free cash flow is not a measurement of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” for more information.

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Revenue Recognition. Revenues related to fixed-price contracts for application development and systems integration services, consulting or other technology services are recognized as the service is performed using the cost-to-cost method, under which the total value of revenues is recognized on the basis of the percentage that each contract’s total labor cost to-date bears to the total expected labor costs. Revenues related to fixed-price application maintenance, quality engineering and assurance and business process services are recognized using the cost-to-cost method, if the right to invoice is not representative of the value being delivered. The cost-to-cost method requires estimation of future costs, which is updated as the project progresses to reflect the latest available information. Such estimates and changes in estimates involve the use of judgment. The cumulative impact of any revision in estimates is reflected in the financial reporting period in which the change in estimate becomes known. Net changes in estimates of such future costs were immaterial to the consolidated results of operations for the periods presented.

Income Taxes. Determining the consolidated provision for income taxes, deferred income tax assets (and related valuation allowance, if any) and liabilities requires significant judgment. We are required to calculate and provide for income taxes in each of the jurisdictions where we operate. Changes in the geographic mix of income before taxes or estimated level of annual pre-tax income can affect our overall effective income tax rate. In addition, transactions between our affiliated entities are arranged in accordance with applicable transfer pricing laws, regulations and relevant guidelines. As a result, and due to the interpretive nature of certain aspects of these laws and guidelines, we have pending applications for APAs before the taxing authorities in some of our most significant jurisdictions. It could take years for the relevant taxing authorities to negotiate and conclude these applications. The consolidated provision for income taxes may change period to period based on changes in facts and circumstances, such as settlements of income tax audits, the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations or finalization of our applications for APAs.

Our provision for income taxes also includes the impact of reserves established for uncertain income tax positions, as well as the related interest, which may require us to apply judgment to complex issues and may require an extended period of time to resolve. Although we believe we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions, no assurance can be given that the final outcome of these matters will not differ from our recorded amounts. We adjust these reserves in light of changing facts and circumstances, such as the closing of a tax audit or the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations. To the extent that the final outcome of these matters differs from the amounts recorded, such differences will impact the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made.

Business Combinations, Goodwill and Intangible Assets. Goodwill and intangible assets, including indefinite-lived intangible assets, arise from the accounting for business combinations. We account for business combinations using the acquisition method which requires us to estimate the fair value of identifiable assets acquired, liabilities assumed, including any contingent consideration, and any noncontrolling interest in the acquiree to properly allocate purchase price to the individual assets acquired and liabilities assumed. The allocation of the purchase price utilizes estimates and assumptions in determining the fair values of identifiable assets acquired and liabilities assumed, especially with respect to intangible assets, including the timing and amount of forecasted revenues and cash flows, anticipated growth rates, client attrition rates and the discount rate reflecting the risk inherent in future cash flows.

At each acquisition date, we allocate goodwill and intangible assets to our reporting units based on how we expect each reporting unit to benefit from the respective business combination. Our seven industry-based operating segments are our reporting units. We exercise judgment to allocate goodwill to the reporting units expected to benefit from each business combination. Goodwill is tested for impairment at the reporting unit level on an annual basis and between annual tests if an event occurs or circumstances change that would more likely than not reduce the fair value of a reporting unit below its carrying value. These events or circumstances could include a significant change in the business climate, regulatory environment, established business plans, operating performance indicators or competition. Evaluation of goodwill for impairment requires judgment, including the identification of reporting units, assignment of assets, liabilities and goodwill to reporting units and determination of the fair value of each reporting unit.

We estimate the fair value of our reporting units using a combination of an income approach, utilizing a discounted cash flow analysis, and a market approach, using market multiples. Under the income approach, we estimate projected future cash flows, the timing of such cash flows and long-term growth rates, and determine the appropriate discount rate that reflects the risk inherent in the projected future cash flows. The discount rate used is based on a market participant weighted-average cost of capital and may be adjusted for the relevant risk associated with business-specific characteristics and the uncertainty related to the reporting unit’s ability to execute on the projected future cash flows. Under the market approach, we estimate fair value based on market multiples of revenues and earnings derived from comparable publicly-traded companies with characteristics similar to the reporting unit. The estimates used to calculate the fair value of a reporting unit change from year to year based on operating results, market conditions and other factors. Changes in these estimates and assumptions could materially affect the determination of fair value for each reporting unit.

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Based on our most recent evaluation of goodwill performed during the fourth quarter of 2023, we concluded that the goodwill in each of our reporting units was not at risk of impairment. As of December 31, 2023, our goodwill balance was $6,085 million.

We review our finite-lived assets, including our finite-lived intangible assets, for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset group may not be recoverable. The carrying amount may not be recoverable when the sum of undiscounted expected future cash flows is less than the carrying amount of such asset groups. The impairment loss is determined as the amount by which the carrying amount of the asset group exceeds its fair value. Assessing the fair value of asset groups involves significant estimates and assumptions including estimation of future cash flows, the timing of such cash flows and discount rates reflecting the risk inherent in future cash flows.

Recently Adopted and New Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 1 to our consolidated financial statements for additional information.

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Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk

Foreign Currency Risk

We are exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk in the ordinary course of doing business as we transact or hold a portion of our funds in foreign currencies. Accordingly, we periodically evaluate the need for hedging strategies, including the use of derivative financial instruments, to mitigate the effect of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and expect to continue to use such instruments in the future to reduce foreign currency exposure to changes in the value of certain foreign currencies. All hedging transactions are authorized and executed pursuant to regularly reviewed policies and procedures.

Revenues from our clients in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Rest of World represented 9.7%, 9.9% and 6.7%, respectively, of our 2023 revenues, and are typically denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Accordingly, our revenues may be affected by fluctuations in the exchange rates, primarily the British pound and the Euro, as compared to the U.S. dollar.

A predominant portion of our costs in India are denominated in the Indian rupee, representing 24% of our global operating costs during 2023, and are subject to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. These foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations have an impact on our results of operations.

We have entered into a series of foreign exchange forward and option contracts that are designated as cash flow hedges of certain Indian rupee denominated payments in India. These U.S. dollar / Indian rupee hedges are intended to partially offset the impact of movement of exchange rates on future operating costs. As of December 31, 2023, the notional value and weighted average contract rates of these contracts by year of maturity were as follows:

As of December 31, 2023, the net unrealized gain on our outstanding foreign exchange forward and option contracts designated as cash flow hedges was $13 million. Based upon a sensitivity analysis at December 31, 2023, which estimates the fair value of the contracts assuming certain market exchange rate fluctuations, a 10.0% change in the foreign currency exchange rate against the U.S. dollar with all other variables held constant would have resulted in a change in the fair value of our foreign exchange forward contracts designated as cash flow hedges of approximately $278 million.

A portion of our balance sheet is exposed to foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, which may result in non-operating foreign currency exchange gains or losses upon remeasurement. In 2023, we reported foreign currency exchange gains, exclusive of hedging gains, of approximately $42 million, which were primarily attributed to the remeasurement of net monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currencies of our subsidiaries. We use foreign exchange forward contracts that are scheduled to mature in the first quarter of 2024 to provide an economic hedge against balance sheet exposure to certain monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the functional currency of the subsidiary. At December 31, 2023, the notional value of these outstanding contracts was $1,317 million and the net unrealized loss was $8 million. Based upon a sensitivity analysis of our foreign exchange forward contracts at December 31, 2023, which estimates the fair value of the contracts assuming certain market exchange rate fluctuations, a 10.0% change in the foreign currency exchange rate against the U.S. dollar with all other variables held constant would have resulted in a change in the fair value of our foreign exchange forward contracts not designated as hedges of approximately $87 million.

Interest Rate Risk

We have a Credit Agreement providing for a $650 million Term Loan and a $1,850 million unsecured revolving credit facility, which are due to mature in October 2027. The Credit Agreement requires interest to be paid, at our option, at either the Term Benchmark, Adjusted Daily Simple RFR or the ABR Rate (each as defined in the Credit Agreement), plus, in each case, an Applicable Margin (as defined in the Credit Agreement). The Term Loan is a Term Benchmark loan. Thus, our debt exposes us to market risk from changes in interest rates. We performed a sensitivity analysis to determine the effect of interest rate fluctuations on our interest expense. A 100 basis point change in interest rates, with all other variables held constant, would have an immaterial effect on our reported interest expense.

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We have $1,161 million of cash equivalents, $14 million of short-term investments and $435 million of long-term investments as of December 31, 2023. Our cash equivalents consist of money market funds and time deposits. Our short-term investments consist primarily of a U.S. dollar denominated investment in a fixed income mutual fund. Our investments are exposed to fluctuations in interest rates, which may affect our interest income and the fair market value of our investments. Our long-term investments primarily consist of restricted time deposits and cash equivalents related to the ITD dispute and equity method investments. As of December 31, 2023, a 100 basis point change in interest rates, with all other variables held constant, would have an immaterial effect on the fair value of our cash equivalents as well as short- and long-term investments.

Information provided by the sensitivity analysis of foreign currency risk and interest rate risk does not necessarily represent the actual changes that would occur under normal market conditions.

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

The financial statements required to be filed pursuant to this Item 8 are appended to this Annual Report on Form 10-K. A list of the financial statements filed herewith is found in Part IV, “Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statements and Financial Statement Schedule.”

Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure

None.

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

Our management, under the supervision and with the participation of our chief executive officer and our chief financial officer, evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) as of December 31, 2023. Based on this evaluation, our chief executive officer and our chief financial officer concluded that, as of December 31, 2023, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) that occurred during the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2023 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is defined in Rule 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, our chief executive and chief financial officers and effected by our Board of Directors, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that:

•Pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of our assets;

•Provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the Company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of our management and directors; and

•Provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of the Company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Our management assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023. In making this assessment, the Company’s management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013).

Based on its evaluation, our management has concluded that, as of December 31, 2023, our internal control over financial reporting was effective. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm that audited the

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financial statements included in this annual report, has issued an attestation report on our internal control over financial reporting, as stated in their report which is included on page F-2.

Inherent Limitations of Internal Controls

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect all misstatements. Projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Item 9B. Other Information

During the three months ended December 31, 2023, no director or Section 16 officer adopted or terminated any Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangements or non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangements (in each case, as defined in Item 408(a) of Regulation S-K).

Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections

Not applicable.

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PART III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance

The information relating to our executive officers in response to this item is contained in part under the caption “Information About Our Executive Officers” in Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We have adopted a written code of ethics, entitled “Code of Ethics,” that applies to all of our directors, executive officers and employees, including our principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer and controller, or persons performing similar functions. We make available our code of ethics free of charge through our website which is located at www.cognizant.com. We intend to post on our website all disclosures that are required by law or Nasdaq Stock Market listing standards concerning any amendments to, or waivers from, any provision of our code of ethics.

The remaining information required by this item will be included under the caption "Corporate governance" in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC pursuant to Regulation 14A not later than 120 days after the end of the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and is incorporated herein by reference to such proxy statement.

Item 11. Executive Compensation

The information required by this item will be included in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and is incorporated herein by reference to such proxy statement.

Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

The information required by this item will be included in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and is incorporated herein by reference to such proxy statement.

Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence

The information required by this item will be included in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and is incorporated herein by reference to such proxy statement.

Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services

The information required by this item will be included in our definitive proxy statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and is incorporated herein by reference to such proxy statement.

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PART IV

Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules

(3) Exhibits.

Schedules other than as listed above are omitted as not required or inapplicable or because the required information is provided in the consolidated financial statements, including the notes thereto.

EXHIBIT INDEX

Incorporated by Reference

Number Exhibit Description Form File No. Exhibit Date Filed or FurnishedHerewith

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Incorporated by Reference

Number Exhibit Description Form File No. Exhibit Date Filed or FurnishedHerewith

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Incorporated by Reference

Number Exhibit Description Form File No. Exhibit Date Filed or FurnishedHerewith

21.1 List of subsidiaries of the Company Filed

23.1 Consent of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Filed

101.SCH Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document Filed

101.CAL Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document Filed

101.DEF Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document Filed

101.LAB Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Label Linkbase Document Filed

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Incorporated by Reference

Number Exhibit Description Form File No. Exhibit Date Filed or FurnishedHerewith

101.PRE Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document Filed

Item 16. Form 10-K Summary

None.

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

By: /S/ RAVI KUMAR S

Ravi Kumar S,

Chief Executive Officer

(Principal Executive Officer)

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.

Signature Title Date

Ravi Kumar S

Jatin Dalal

Robert Telesmanic

/s/ STEPHEN J. ROHLEDER Chair of the Board and Director February 14, 2024

Stephen J. Rohleder

/s/ ZEIN ABDALLA Director February 14, 2024

Zein Abdalla

/s/ VINITA BALI Director February 14, 2024

Vinita Bali

/s/ ERIC BRANDERIZ Director February 14, 2024

Eric Branderiz

/s/ ARCHANA DESKUS Director February 14, 2024

Archana Deskus

/s/ JOHN M. DINEEN Director February 14, 2024

John M. Dineen

/s/ LEO S. MACKAY, JR. Director February 14, 2024

Leo S. Mackay, Jr.

/s/ MICHAEL PATSALOS-FOX Director February 14, 2024

Michael Patsalos-Fox

/s/ ABRAHAM SCHOT Director February 14, 2024

Abraham Schot

/s/ JOSEPH M. VELLI Director February 14, 2024

Joseph M. Velli

/s/ SANDRA S. WIJNBERG Director February 14, 2024

Sandra S. Wijnberg

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COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULE

Page

Consolidated Financial Statements:

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID No. 238) F-2

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements F-9

Financial Statement Schedule:

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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of financial position of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the related consolidated statements of operations, of comprehensive income, of stockholders’ equity and of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, including the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the accompanying index (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). We also have audited the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the COSO.

Basis for Opinions

The Company's management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in Management's Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting appearing under Item 9A. Our responsibility is to express opinions on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and on the Company's internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

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Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (i) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (ii) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Revenue Recognition – Expected Labor Costs to Complete for Certain Fixed-Price Contracts

As described in Notes 1 and 2 to the consolidated financial statements, fixed-price contracts comprised $8.7 billion of the Company’s total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023, which includes performance obligations where control is transferred over time. For performance obligations where control is transferred over time, revenues are recognized based on the extent of progress towards completion of the performance obligation. The selection of the method to measure progress towards completion requires judgment and is based on the nature of the deliverables to be provided. Management recognizes revenues related to fixed-price contracts for application development and systems integration services, consulting or other technology services as the service is performed using the cost-to-cost method, under which the total value of revenues is recognized on the basis of the percentage that each contract’s total labor cost to date bears to the total expected labor costs. The cost-to-cost method requires estimation of future costs, which is updated as the project progresses to reflect the latest available information. Revenues related to fixed-price application maintenance, quality engineering and assurance as well as business process services are recognized based on management’s right to invoice for services performed for contracts in which the invoicing is representative of the value being delivered. If management’s invoicing is not consistent with the value delivered, revenues are recognized as the service is performed based on the cost-to-cost method described above.

The principal considerations for our determination that performing procedures relating to revenue recognition – expected labor costs to complete for certain fixed-price contracts is a critical audit matter are the significant judgment by management when developing the estimated total expected labor costs to complete fixed-price contracts and the significant auditor judgment, subjectivity, and effort in performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence relating to management’s estimate of total expected labor costs.

Addressing the matter involved performing procedures and evaluating audit evidence in connection with forming our overall opinion on the consolidated financial statements. These procedures included testing the effectiveness of controls relating to the revenue recognition process, including controls over the development of the estimated total expected labor costs to complete fixed-price contracts. These procedures also included, among others, evaluating and testing management’s process for developing the estimated total expected labor costs for a sample of contracts, which included evaluating the reasonableness of the total expected labor cost assumptions used by management. Evaluating the reasonableness of the assumptions related to the total expected labor costs involved assessing management’s ability to reasonably develop total expected labor costs by (i) performing a comparison of expected labor cost metrics at project inception with actual cost metrics for similar completed projects and (ii) evaluating the timely identification of circumstances that may warrant a modification to previous labor cost estimates, including actual labor costs in excess of estimates.

/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

New York, New York

February 14, 2024

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 1997.

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COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION

December 31,

(in millions, except par values) 2023 2022

Assets

Current assets:

Cash and cash equivalents $ 2,621 $ 2,191

Short-term investments 14 310

Trade accounts receivable, net 3,849 3,796

Operating lease assets, net 611 876

Deferred income tax assets, net 993 642

Other noncurrent assets 656 662

Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity

Current liabilities:

Short-term debt 33 8

Operating lease liabilities 153 174

Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 2,425 2,407

Deferred revenue, noncurrent 42 19

Operating lease liabilities, noncurrent 523 714

Deferred income tax liabilities, net 226 180

Long-term income taxes payable 157 283

Other noncurrent liabilities 369 362

Commitments and contingencies (See Note 15)

Stockholders’ equity:

Preferred stock, $0.10 par value, 15 shares authorized, none issued — —

Additional paid-in capital 15 15

Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (94) (299)

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 18,483 $ 17,852

The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.

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COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

Year Ended December 31,

Operating expenses:

Selling, general and administrative expenses 3,252 3,443 3,503

Restructuring charges 229 — —

Depreciation and amortization expense 519 569 574

Other income (expense), net:

Interest expense (41) (19) (9)

Foreign currency exchange gains (losses), net 2 7 (20)

Other, net 11 1 —

Total other income (expense), net 98 48 1

Income (loss) from equity method investments 7 4 3

Diluted earnings per share $ 4.21 $ 4.41 $ 4.05

Weighted average number of common shares outstanding—Basic 505 518 527

Dilutive effect of shares issuable under stock-based compensation plans — 1 1

Weighted average number of common shares outstanding—Diluted 505 519 528

The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.

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COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

Year Ended December 31,

Change in Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax:

Foreign currency translation adjustments 144 (228) (75)

Unrealized gains and losses on cash flow hedges 61 (108) 2

Other comprehensive income (loss) 205 (336) (73)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.

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COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY

Shares Amount

Other comprehensive income (loss) — — — — (73) (73)

Common stock issued, stock-based compensation plans 5 — 130 — — 130

Stock-based compensation expense — — 246 — — 246

Dividends declared, $0.96 per share — — — (510) — (510)

Other comprehensive income (loss) — — — — (336) (336)

Common stock issued, stock-based compensation plans 4 — 86 — — 86

Stock-based compensation expense — — 261 — — 261

Dividends declared, $1.08 per share — — — (565) — (565)

Other comprehensive income (loss) — — — — 205 205

Common stock issued, stock-based compensation plans 4 — 71 — — 71

Stock-based compensation expense — — 176 — — 176

Dividends declared, $1.16 per share — — — (590) — (590)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.

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COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

Year Ended December 31,

Cash flows from operating activities:

Changes in assets and liabilities:

Trade accounts receivable (43) (238) (407)

Other current and noncurrent assets 123 343 348

Accounts payable (23) (11) (35)

Deferred revenue, current and noncurrent (4) (26) 19

Other current and noncurrent liabilities (242) (392) (413)

Cash flows from investing activities:

Purchases of property and equipment (317) (332) (279)

Purchases of available-for-sale investment securities (59) (1,227) (430)

Proceeds from maturity of available-for-sale investment securities 285 1,315 120

Purchases of held-to-maturity investment securities (3) (44) (203)

Proceeds from maturity of held-to-maturity investment securities 24 54 180

Proceeds from maturity or sale of other investments 527 1,013 1,078

Proceeds from sales of businesses — 28 —

Payments for business combinations, net of cash acquired (409) (367) (970)

Net cash (used in) investing activities (331) (106) (2,164)

Cash flows from financing activities:

Issuance of common stock under stock-based compensation plans 71 86 130

Proceeds from debt refinancing — 650 —

Debt issuance costs — (3) —

Net cash (used in) financing activities (1,609) (1,939) (1,203)

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of year 2,294 1,792 2,680

Supplemental information:

Cash paid for income taxes during the year $ 1,245 $ 813 $ 625

Cash interest paid during the year $ 40 $ 15 $ 7

The accompanying notes are an integral part of the consolidated financial statements.

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COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORPORATION

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

(Dollars in millions, except share data)

Note 1 — Business Description and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

The terms “Cognizant,” “we,” “our,” “us” and “the Company” refer to Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation and its subsidiaries unless the context indicates otherwise.

Description of Business. We are one of the world’s leading professional services companies, engineering modern businesses and delivering strategic outcomes for our clients. We help clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stay ahead in a fast-changing world. We provide industry expertise and close client collaboration, combining critical perspective with a flexible engagement style. We tailor our services and solutions to specific industries with an integrated global delivery model that employs client service and delivery teams based at client locations and dedicated global and regional delivery centers. Our collaborative services include digital services and solutions, consulting, application development, systems integration, quality engineering and assurance, application maintenance, infrastructure and security as well as business process services and automation. Digital services continue to be an important part of our portfolio, aligning with our clients' focus on becoming data-enabled, customer-centric and differentiated businesses.

Basis of Presentation, Principles of Consolidation and Use of Estimates. The consolidated financial statements are presented in accordance with GAAP and reflect the consolidated financial position, results of operations, comprehensive income and cash flows of our consolidated subsidiaries for all periods presented. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

The preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying disclosures. We evaluate our estimates on a continuous basis. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The actual amounts may vary from the estimates used in the preparation of the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments. Cash and cash equivalents consist of all cash balances, including money market funds, time deposits, certificates of deposits and commercial paper that have a maturity, at the date of purchase, of 90 days or less.

We determine the appropriate classification of our investments in marketable securities at the date of purchase and reevaluate such designation at each balance sheet date. We classify and account for our marketable debt securities as either available-for-sale or held-to-maturity. After consideration of our risk versus reward objectives, as well as our liquidity requirements, we may sell our available-for-sale securities prior to their stated maturities. We classify these marketable securities with maturities at the date of purchase beyond 90 days as short-term investments based on their highly liquid nature and because such marketable securities represent an investment of cash that is available for current operations. Available-for-sale securities are reported at fair value with changes in unrealized gains and losses recorded as a separate component of "Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)" on the consolidated statements of financial position until realized. We determine the cost of the securities sold based on the specific identification method. Our held-to-maturity investment securities are financial instruments that we have the intent and ability to hold to maturity and we classify these securities with maturities less than one year as short-term investments. Any held-to-maturity investment securities with maturities beyond one year from the balance sheet date are classified as long-term investments. Held-to-maturity securities are reported at amortized cost. Interest and amortization of premiums and discounts for debt securities are included in interest income.

For available-for-sale debt securities, if we do not intend to sell the security or it is not more likely than not that we will be required to sell the security before recovery of our amortized cost, we evaluate qualitative criteria, such as the financial health of and specific prospects for the issuer, to determine whether we do not expect to recover the amortized cost basis of the security. We also evaluate quantitative criteria including determining whether there has been an adverse change in expected future cash flows. If we do not expect to recover the entire amortized cost basis of the security, we consider the security to contain an expected credit loss, and we record the difference between the security’s amortized cost basis and its recoverable amount in earnings as an allowance for credit loss and the difference between the security’s recoverable amount and fair value in other comprehensive income. If we intend to sell the security or it is more likely than not we will be required to sell the security before recovery of its amortized cost basis, the security is considered impaired, and we recognize the entire difference between the security’s amortized cost basis and its fair value in earnings.

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On initial recognition and on an ongoing basis, we evaluate our held-to-maturity investment securities for expected credit losses collectively when they share similar risk characteristics or individually, when the risk characteristics are different. The allowance for expected credit losses is determined using our historical loss experience. We monitor the credit ratings of the securities in our portfolio to evaluate the need for any changes to the allowance. An increase or a decrease in the allowance for expected credit losses is recorded through income as a credit loss expense or a reversal thereof. The allowance for expected credit losses is presented as a deduction from the amortized cost. A held-to-maturity investment security is written off when deemed uncollectible.

Financial Assets and Liabilities. Cash and certain cash equivalents, time deposits, trade receivables, accounts payable and other accrued liabilities are short-term in nature and, accordingly, their carrying values approximate fair value.

Property and Equipment. Property and equipment are stated at cost, net of accumulated depreciation. Depreciation is calculated on a straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the assets. Leasehold improvements are amortized on a straight-line basis over the shorter of the term of the lease or the estimated useful life of the asset. Deposits paid towards acquisition of long-lived assets and the cost of assets not put in use by the balance sheet date are disclosed under the caption "Capital work-in-progress" in Note 6.

Leases. Our lease asset classes primarily consist of operating leases for office space, data centers and IT equipment. At inception of a contract, we determine whether a contract contains a lease, and if a lease is identified, whether it is an operating or finance lease. In determining whether a contract contains a lease we consider whether (1) we have the right to obtain substantially all of the economic benefits from the use of the asset throughout the term of the contract, (2) we have the right to direct how and for what purpose the asset is used throughout the term of the contract and (3) we have the right to operate the asset throughout the term of the contract without the lessor having the right to change the terms of the contract. Some of our lease agreements contain both lease and non-lease components that we account for as a single lease component for all of our lease asset classes.