Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, January 23, 2015

Article Excerpt

PLEASE NOTE: Next week, Wall Street Stock Forecaster will reveal its #1 pick for 2015. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to profit. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., $155.87, New York symbol IBM, reported better-than-expected earnings this week. But that’s mainly due to cost cuts, as demand for the company’s mainframes and computer services has weakened. In the three months ended December 31, 2014, IBM earned $5.8 billion, down 13.0% from $6.65 billion a year earlier. Per-share earnings fell 5.7%, to $5.81 from $6.16, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude unusual items, such as a gain on the recent sale of its low-margin server operations to China’s Lenovo Group. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $5.41 a share. Revenue fell 11.9%, to $24.1 billion from $27.4 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $24.8 billion. If you adjust for foreign exchange rates and the sale of the server business, revenue declined by 2%. IBM recently updated its mainframes, which should help boost…