Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, July 22, 2011

Article Excerpt

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., $185.18, New York symbol IBM, reported higher-than-expected earnings for the latest quarter. In the three months ended June 30, 2011, the company earned $3.7 billion. That’s up 8.2% from $3.4 billion a year earlier. IBM spent $4.0 billion on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 14.9%, to $3.00 from $2.61. If you exclude unusual items, mainly costs to integrate acquisitions, IBM’s earnings per share would have risen 17.9%, to $3.09 from $2.62. On this basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $3.03 a share. Sales rose 12.4%, to $26.7 billion from $23.7 billion. That was higher than the consensus sales estimate of $25.4 billion. IBM gets two-thirds of its sales from overseas markets. If you adjust for foreign-currency rates, sales would have risen 5%. Sales from Brazil, Russia, India and China jumped 27%. Fast-growing markets, including those four countries, accounted for 22% of IBM’s total revenue. Overall…