{"id":19854,"date":"2017-01-20T06:47:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T06:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=19854"},"modified":"2017-01-20T06:47:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-20T06:47:02","slug":"ibm-revenue-fall-dims-upbeat-profit-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/technology\/ibm-revenue-fall-dims-upbeat-profit-forecast.html","title":{"rendered":"IBM revenue fall dims upbeat profit forecast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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IBM revenue fall dims upbeat profit forecast<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

IBM revenue fall dims upbeat profit forecast:-<\/strong> International Business Machines Corp reported its 19th straight quarter of declining revenue, but forecast full-year earnings above Wall Street estimates due to growth in newer areas such as cloud-based services and analytics.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, investments to drive growth in the cloud business and the company’s shift to a subscription-based as-a-service model hit its operating gross margin by 1.8 percentage points to 51 percent in the fourth quarter.<\/span><\/p>\n

IBM’s shares were down 2.5 percent at $162.70 after rising briefly in extended trading.<\/span><\/p>\n

CFRA Research analyst David Holt said the company’s results still raised questions as to when revenue would grow.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The 800-pound gorilla in the room is the overall inflection point towards revenue growth. That’s the moving target,” Holt said.<\/span><\/p>\n

IBM forecast adjusted earnings of at least $13.80 per share for fiscal 2017, beating the average analyst estimate of $13.74, according to Thomson Reuters I\/B\/E\/S.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chief Executive Gini Rometty’s transition efforts have shown revenue growth across some areas in recent quarters, with newer businesses driving the efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rometty has also been supportive of President-elect Donald Trump’s tax reform proposal. The proposal would allow companies in the United States to reinvest in training and educational programs for their employees, Rometty wrote in a letter to Trump in November.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When you have an administration that is pro-export … we can see a benefit from that, and if we get fundamental tax reform, that could, on balance, help us as well,” Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter told Reuters on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Revenue from “strategic imperatives”, which includes cloud and mobile computing, data analytics, social and security software, rose 11 percent to $9.5 billion in the fourth quarter, from a year earlier. It contributed 41 percent to IBM’s total revenue in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cloud computing revenue across IBM’s segments rose 33 percent. The business includes services such as SoftLayer, which leases online storage space to companies, as well as the BlueMix cloud platform.<\/span><\/p>\n

Excluding items, IBM earned $5.01 per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of $4.88 per share.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company’s revenue fell 1.3 percent to $21.77 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, but beat analysts’ expectations of $21.64 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Net income rose to $4.50 billion, or $4.72 per share, from $4.46 billion, or $4.59 per share, helped partly by a lower tax rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

IBM’s shares rose 30.2 percent in the last 12 months, outperforming the 23.2 percent gain in the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-ibm-results-idUSKBN15333V<\/span><\/div>\n

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