Spinoff Spotlight: International Business Machines Corp.

Article Excerpt

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $142 is your #1 Spinoff Buy for 2021. The company (New York symbol IBM, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 896.3 million; Market cap: $127.3 billion; Dividend yield: 4.6%; Takeover Target Rating: Lowest; www.ibm.com) has announced more details regarding the spinoff of the Managed Infrastructure Services unit of its Global Technology Services division. That legacy business helps corporate and government clients manage their datacentres. The new firm—called Kyndryl Holdings Inc.—will trade on the New York exchange under the “KD” symbol. IBM will hand out 80.1% of its Kyndryl shares to its own investors as a tax-deferred special dividend by the end of 2021. It plans to dispose of its remaining shares within 12 months of the spinoff. Kyndryl’s outlook is positive given the managed infrastructure services market is growing by about 7% a year. The split will also let the remaining company focus on its faster-growing cloud computing and analytics software operations. IBM is a buy. buy…