Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, July 21, 2017

Article Excerpt

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., $147.08, New York symbol IBM, is one of the world’s largest computer companies, with operations in over 175 countries. IBM reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter of 2017. However, weaker demand for the company’s traditional mainframe computers continued to offset its faster-growing businesses such as cloud computing and analytical software. In the three months ended June 30, 2017, IBM’s overall earnings declined 1.5%, to $2.79 billion from $2.84 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share profits rose 0.7%, to $2.97 from $2.95. Those figures exclude unusual items such as costs related to recent acquisitions and changes to IBM’s employee pension plans. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $2.74 a share. The company’s revenue in the quarter fell 4.7%, to $19.3 billion from $20.2 billion a year earlier. That missed the consensus estimate of $19.4 billion. As well, IBM’s gross profit margin (gross profits divided by revenue) worsened to 47.2% from 49.0%. However,…