IBM thrives in the cloud

Article Excerpt

IBM, $125.45, is a buy. The stock (New York symbol IBM; Shares o/s: 890.6 million; Market cap: $111.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 5.2%) reports that despite new operations, its revenue in the three months ended June 30, 2020, fell 5.4%, to $18.12 billion from $19.16 billion a year earlier. Weaker demand for the company’s legacy operations, partly due to COVID-19, offset strong growth for its cloud operations (up 30%). However, lower earnings from those legacy businesses caused IBM’s earnings to fall 31.2%, to $2.18 a share from $3.17. That still beat the consensus estimate of $2.09. The pandemic should continue to drive strong demand for IBM’s hybrid cloud systems, which combine company-owned servers with public cloud services (such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure). That’s because they help businesses keep their data secure as many of their employees work from home. IBM is a buy. buy…