IBM beats forecasts

Article Excerpt

IBM $170.62 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $206.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 1.7%) reported higher-than-expected earnings in the latest quarter. Before one-time items, IBM’s earnings per share rose 22.3% in the three months ended March 31, 2011, to $2.41 from $1.97. The latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $2.29. Revenue rose 7.7%, to $24.6 billion from $22.9 billion a year earlier. That was higher than the consensus revenue estimate of $24.0 billion. Revenue from growth markets, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, jumped 18%. IBM now gets 21% of its revenue from growth markets. The company is also seeing strong demand for its new System Z mainframe computer. However, the value of new service contracts fell 14% in the quarter, to $10.5 billion. That missed the consensus estimate of $13 billion. As of March 31, 2011, IBM’s service order backlog was $142 billion, or 1.4 times its annual revenue. The company now expects to…