Daily Management Review

IBM revenue falls for the 20th quarter in a row


04/19/2017


International Business Machines (IBM) reported a drop in revenue above market expectations. Demand in the company's largest business – services - fell for the first time in five quarters, Reuters reported. IBM shares went down by 4%, to $ 163.15 after the end of trading on Tuesday.



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Net income of IBM under GAAP in the I quarter of 2017 decreased by 13% to $ 1.8 billion, or $ 1.85 per share. Non-GAAP operating profit decreased 1% to $ 2.3 billion.

Deterioration of the indicators has been caused by depreciation of acquired intangible assets, as well as departure of employees from the company.

The revenue fell by 2.8% to $ 18.16 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected it to be $ 18.39 billion. Adjusted for currency fluctuations, the fall was 2%. In the cloud segment, revenue growth was 33% to $ 3.5 billion, with a correction for fluctuations in rates of 35%. In general, over the past 12 months, revenues in the cloud segment reached $ 14.6 billion.

The main reason for the fall in IBM revenue is the decline in sales of servers and other IT equipment. Approximately 42% of IBM's revenues are occupied by so-called "strategic imperatives", to which the company refers artificial intelligence, analytics, social networks, mobile technologies and information security solutions.

Growth in these "strategic imperatives" for the reporting quarter continued, while revenue increased by 12% in the I quarter. Revenue growth in the IV quarter was 11%, reaching $ 7.8 billion.

IBM said that gross profit declined in all divisions, while the company's total profitability dropped to 42.8% from 46.5%. IBM completed the quarter with $ 10.7 billion of free cash. Total debt was $ 42.8 billion.

With the exception of some articles, IBM earned $ 2.38 per share, which is higher than expectations of analysts who predicted an average of $ 2.35. The company also said it expects adjusted earnings of at least $ 13.80 per share for the fiscal year 2017, confirming the forecast it gave on January 19. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S forecast $ 13.78 per security.

source: reuters.com