Investing

IBM shares weigh on the Dow after one-time tech bellwether posts 21st-straight revenue decline

Key Points
  • IBM's stock fall is pressuring the price-weighted Dow Jones industrial average.
  • IBM is the fifth-largest Dow component by share price.
  • The price drop came after IBM reported its 21st-straight quarter of declining revenues.
IBM earnings quality 'not very impressive': Jefferies James Kisner
VIDEO2:2402:24
IBM earnings quality 'not very impressive': Jefferies James Kisner

Shares of IBM dropped around 4 percent in early trading Wednesday, a day after the multinational technology company announced yet another revenue decline.

IBM reported second-quarter revenue of $19.29 billion on Tuesday, marking the 21st-straight quarter of declining revenues. Sales for the company also missed a Reuters estimate of $19.46 billion.

IBM, the fifth-largest Dow Jones industrial average component by share price, was the worst performer in the benchmark. The Dow was little changed about 30 minutes into the trading day.

"As expected, we had a larger currency headwind to revenue growth with about twice the impact of the first quarter," IBM CFO Martin Schroeter said in a statement Tuesday. "Excluding the acquisitive content, our year-to-year revenue performance was a modest improvement over last quarter's rate."

"If you're looking at IBM, you have to take a longer-term view and you have to be expecting a single with a nice dividend yield rather than a home run," David Katz, chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Advisors, said Tuesday on CNBC's "Closing Bell." "We think a year from now the stock could be about 15 percent higher."

As of Tuesday's close, IBM stock had fallen more than 7 percent this year.