William Blair analyst Anil Doradla downgraded Cognizant Technology Solutions to Market Perform from Outperform. After visiting India, the analyst is concerned that Cognizant will be affected by structural changes within the services industry. The newest headwind to the industry is related to the potential policy changes under President-elect Trump, Doradla tells investors in a research note. Further, the analyst is disappointed by the company's lack of capital returns to shareholders. He also expects Cognizant's growth will continue decelerating from 2016 through 2018. In pre-market trading, the shares are down 53c to $52.65.

Citi analyst Ryan Potter lowered the firm's price target on Cognizant to $82 from $90 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst continues to have a cautious view toward the enterprise IT spending environment into the Q1 reports with the demand environment relatively unchanged from late 2023. This includes continued pressures on discretionary spend and delayed decision-making as macro, geopolitical, and some industry-specific concerns remain, the analyst tells investors in a research note.