Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, October 22, 2010

Article Excerpt

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., $139.67, New York symbol IBM, reported better-than-expected earnings this week, thanks to rising demand for its mainframe computers, software and computer services. In the three months ended September 30, 2010, IBM’s earnings rose 11.7%, to $3.6 billion from $3.2 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 17.5%, to $2.82 from $2.40, on fewer shares outstanding. The latest earnings beat the consensus earnings estimate of $2.76 a share. Revenue rose 3.0% in the quarter, to $24.3 billion from $23.6 billion. That was just above the consensus revenue estimate of $24.2 billion. IBM gets about two-thirds of its revenue from overseas customers. If you exclude the negative impact of currency exchange rates, revenue would have risen 4%. The company signed $11.0 billion of new service contracts in the latest quarter. That’s down 7% from a year earlier. However, IBM signed a major outsourcing deal just after the quarter ended. If you include this contract, the company would have…