IBM (NYSE:IBM)
As trading continued on Thursday, shares of IBM (NYSE:IBM) maintained a small increase as Wall Street analysts and investors investigated the tech-services giant’s report for the year’s first quarter and anticipated its future business prospects.
On Wednesday, IBM said it had made a profit of $1.36 per share for the first quarter on sales of $14.25 billion. IBM’s profits were higher than expected. Still, the company’s sales came in slightly below the average expectation of analysts, which led to increased worries about business spending and budget cutbacks.
Additionally, IBM said it anticipates a full-year revenue increase of between 3% and 5%.
During a conference call, the Chief Executive Officer of IBM (IBM), Arvind Krishna, stated that the company would continue to invest in artificial intelligence technologies for businesses. He explained, “AI for business is different than AI for consumers, given their need for more accurate results, trusted data, and governance tools.”
Wall Street was adopting a more skeptical view of the company’s prospects and prognosis on Thursday, even though early reactions to IBM’s forecast and report were encouraging.
The earnings report for IBM “played out largely as expected,” according to Erik Woodring of Morgan Stanley. Software, in particular, stood out as being particularly noteworthy. Woodring is keeping a careful eye out for any evidence of major company [buying] behavior adjustments; despite this, he has decided to retain his equal weight rating, often known as a neutral rating, on IBM stock.
In addition, Woodring decreased his price objective on IBM stock, dropping it from $143 to $135 per share.
Analyst Keith Bachman from BMO Capital Markets described IBM’s report as “reasonable.” However, he noted that the business was achieving results compared to what he called “low expectations.”
Overall, the outcomes were in line with our expectations. Still, Bachman said we have too many unanswered concerns to be constructive at this time.
Although Bachman maintained his market performance rating on IBM stock, he reduced his price objective for the company’s stock from $155 to $145 per share.
Featured Image: Unsplash @ Denny Müller
