Coinspeaker
IBM Stock Down Despite Earnings, Cloud Revenue Beat Wall Street View

On Wednesday, IBM reported better-than-expected Q2 earnings. However, the stock price rebounded after hours as the company’s guidance for the year held steady. Shares of IBM rose initially by up to 4% but later receded and in the end were down more than 1%.

According to Refinitiv, revenue came in at $19.16 billion as expected by analysts. The earnings report was $3.17 per share versus the expected $3.07 per share. The company’s revenue fell 4% from last year even as earnings grew 3% according to an official statement. Additionally, the year-over-year revenue has declined for the fourth quarter in a row.

IBM’s Global Technology Services produced $6.84 billion in revenue, down almost 7%. That figure is slightly below the $7 billion consensus estimate projected by FactSet analysts. The GTS is declining by 3% since the company aims to reposition its portfolios for higher growth and profitability. Stifel analysts led by David Grossman wrote in a note on July 9 saying:

“Declines are likely to remain at these levels through most of this year as the company exits lower margin capital intensive business and culls low growth/margin relationships from the portfolio.”

The Cloud and Cognitive Software unit contributed $5.65 billion in revenue against the expected estimate of $5.55 billion. IBM’s Global Business Services segment reported revenue of $4.16 billion just below the $4.17 billion FactSet estimate. Systems revenue came in at $1.75 billion, down around 20% and below the $1.82 billion mean FactSet estimate.

According to IBM, growth from the Power product line sufficiently offset the impact from the company’s storage “product cycle dynamics” and Z mainframe-computer products. In the past quarters, the Z line helped lift IBM’s revenue as businesses made upgrades.

IBM Stock Direction

Shares were up 2.2% to 146.22 in the afternoon hours of Wednesday’s trading session. According to IBM Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh:

“We maintained our momentum in the second quarter, again expanding gross profit margin and growing free cash flow, driven to a great extent by our increasing mix of high-value offerings for clients.”

IBM confirmed that it is on track to meet its full-year adjusted EPS guidance of “at least” $13.90. That figure excludes the impact of the recently successful acquisition of Red Hat. The company’s non-GAAP gross profit margin grew by 100 basis points year-over-year to 47.4% for the quarter. That is the biggest expansion in more than 5 years.

Kavanaugh explained that the gross margins improved as a result of IBM’s higher-value segments like data security, cloud, and artificial intelligence. He also noted that the previously announced software divestiture gains had no impact on Q2 earnings after legal costs and restructuring.

Facebook and Bitcoin

Currently, investors are worried about Facebook’s move into cryptocurrency. They think that it will spark a new wave of regulation. The worry and uncertainty sent the Bitcoin price below $10,000 for the first time in two weeks. US Senate lawmakers grilled David Marcus about the Libra crypto project on July 16.

As we published earlier, Marcus was testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. During that hearing, Facebook’s proposed digital currency Libra and data privacy considerations were examined.

With a lot of animosities, shamelessness and inappropriate language, U.S senators showed their real face. They showed that they do not want to learn and will do anything to keep their monopoly untouched. The Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown said:

“Facebook’s motto is ‘move fast and break things.’ They’ve moved fast and are helping to undermine our democracy. Now they’re expecting us to trust them with our paychecks.”

Bitcoin plunged below $10,000 towards the $9,150 level but it has recovered a bit now trading around $9,800.

IBM Stock Down Despite Earnings, Cloud Revenue Beat Wall Street View