IBM’s stock rallies after strong quarterly results

Shares of IBM (NYSE: IBM) were up nearly 4% in premarket hours on Wednesday after the company beat revenue and earnings estimates for the fourth quarter of 2019 a day earlier. Analysts had forecast adjusted EPS of $4.69 on revenue of $21.6 billion.

IBM reported total revenue of $21.8 billion for the quarter, up 0.1% from the prior-year period. After adjusting for divestitures and currency, revenues rose 3%.

GAAP net income was $3.67 billion, or $4.11 per share, compared to $1.95 billion, or $2.15 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EPS was $4.71.

CFO James Kavanaugh said, “In 2019, we continued to invest in the higher-value growth areas of the industry and took bold actions, including several divestitures and a major acquisition, to position our business, which are reflected in our strong gross margin performance.”

During the quarter, total cloud revenue rose 21% to $6.8 billion. Red Hat revenue was up 24%.

Also read: Johnson & Johnson Q4 2019 Earnings Report

Cloud & Cognitive Software segment revenues were $7.2 billion, up 8.7%. Global Business Services revenues fell 0.6% to $4.2 billion. Global Technology Services revenues totaled $6.9 billion, down 4.8%. Systems revenues were $3 billion, up 16%. Global Financing revenues of $301 million were down 25.3%.

For the full year of 2020, IBM expects GAAP EPS of at least $10.57, and adjusted EPS of at least $13.35.

Get access to timely and accurate verbatim transcripts that are published within hours of the event.