IBM focuses on new growth

Article Excerpt

IBM $148.24 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 886.6 million; Market cap: $132.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.4%; www.ibm.com) is one of the world’s largest computer company, with operations in over 175 countries. Excluding one-time items, IBM earned $2.827 billion in the three months ended June 30, 2019. That’s down 0.2% from $2.834 billion a year earlier. However, due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share gained 2.9%, to $3.17 from $3.08. Revenue in the quarter declined 4.2%, to $19.16 billion from $20.00 billion. Lower sales of mainframe computers offset steady gains from the company’s newer businesses like analytics software and cloud computing. (Cloud systems let users access computer programs online and store files on remote servers.) IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat Inc. should further spur those new businesses. Red Hat is a leading developer of software for cloud-based computing systems. Its programs use the open-source Linux operating system, which lets them adapt to a wide variety of computer-hardware systems. Red Hat…