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Topic: How To Invest

IBM $199.63 – New York symbol IBM

IBM $199.63 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $224.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.9%) reported lower-than-expected earnings and revenue for the latest quarter.

In the three months ended March 31, 2013, the company earned $3.00 a share before one-time items, up 7.9% from $2.78. The gain was mainly the result of IBM’s ongoing efforts to cut costs and improve productivity. Even so, the latest earnings missed the consensus estimate of $3.05 a share.

Revenue fell 5.1%, to $23.4 billion from $24.7 billion. That also fell short of the consensus estimate of $24.6 billion. IBM gets two-thirds of its revenue from overseas. If you adjust for foreign-exchange rates, overall sales would have declined by 3%.

Businesses continue to put off signing deals for new computers and related services due to the uncertain economy. But we still like IBM’s long-term outlook as much as ever. It’s in a strong position to profit from several trends, including cloud computing and data analytics.

IBM may also sell more of its hardware operations. That would give it additional cash to expand its more profitable software business, which will probably supply half of IBM’s earnings by 2015.

The company still expects to earn at least $16.70 a share in 2013. The stock trades at just 12.0 times that estimate.

IBM is still a buy.

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