International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Thursday reported an increase in profit for the fourth quarter, that also trumped Wall Street estimates.
Armonk, New York-based IBM's fourth-quarter profit rose to $4.50 billion or $4.72 per share from $4.46 billion or $4.59 per share last year.
Excluding one-time items, earnings from continuing operations rose to $5.01 per share from $4.84 per share last year. Analysts had a consensus earnings estimate of $4.88 per share for the quarter.
IBM's fourth-quarter revenues dropped to $21.77 billion from $22.06 billion last year. This marks the 19th straight quarter the company has reported lower revenues. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected revenues of $21.64 billion for the quarter.
IBM is divesting off its low-margin and unprofitable hardware businesses to improve profitability. The company is now striving hard to make IBM a company that provides cloud computing and data analytics.
Chief Executive Ginni Rometty said, "In 2016, our strategic imperatives grew to represent more than 40 percent of our total revenue and we have established ourselves as the industry's leading cognitive solutions and cloud platform company."
Fourth-quarter cloud revenues increased 33 percent, the company said. Revenues from analytics increased 9 percent, while revenues from mobile increased 16 percent and revenues from security increased 7 percent. Looking forward to 2017, the company expects adjusted earnings of at least $13.80 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $13.74 per share.
IBM closed Monday's trading at $166.81, up $0.01 or 0.01%, on the NYSE. The stock, however, dropped $3.31 or 1.98% in the after-hours trade.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.