![]()
- New ‘Call of Duty’ rakes in $310 million in 1 day
- Intel settles AMD claims but isn't off the hook
- 'Call of Duty' sells $310M in N Amer, UK in 24 hrs
- HP's 3Com takeover marks a shot at Cisco
- Applied Materials to cut 1,300 to 1,500 jobs
- Drug industry presses FDA to allow more online ads
- Watch concerts free online at BillboardLive.com
- Yahoo CEO pledges to boost profit margins
MOST SHARED
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Share Their 'Optimism' With Eager Columbia Business Students
- Pharma & Social Media
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Warren Buffett's $100,000 Offer and $500,000 Advice for Columbia Business School Students
- Disney Profit, Sales Top Street Forecasts; Shares Jump
- Is Euphoric Market Ignoring Warning Signs?
- Housing Recovery 'Still In Uncharted Territory': HUD Secretary
- Despite Rhetoric, Obama Has Limited Options To Boost Jobs
- Disney CFO and Parks Chief to Swap Roles
- Job Market Politics to Keep Interest Rates Low
- AIG, Symbol of Crisis, Watches Its Stock Zoom Back
- Disney Profit, Sales Top Street Forecasts; Shares Jump
- Bill Gates Praises Apple's Jobs for 'Saving the Company'
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Cramer: The Real Reason Stocks Fell Thursday
- Is Euphoric Market Ignoring Warning Signs?
- Video Game Sales Plunge, but Have They Hit Bottom?
- Despite Rhetoric, Obama Has Few Options to Boost Jobs
International Business Machines beat Wall Street estimates of its quarterly earnings, helped by rigid cost controls and a lower tax rate, and forecast a higher-than-expected 3 percent rise in 2009 earnings per share.
The computing services and software giant reported a profit of $3.28 a share in the fourth quarter on sales of $27.01 billion, compared with a profit of $2.80 on a topline of $28.87 billion last year.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected IBM to earn $3.03 per share on $28.15 billion in sales.
![]() |
alui0000 |
IBM also said that it expects to earn at least $9.20 a share in fiscal year 2009.
Wall Street's consensus forecast put IBM's profit for the year at $8.75.
IBM shares [IBM
Loading...
()
] jumped more than 4 percent in late trading. The stock finished the regular session down 3.46 percent at $81.98.
"The guidance of $9.20 is awesome... looks like their outsourcing, packaging, cost containment strategy is working. They executed really well," said Peter Misek, who follows the company for Canaccord Adams. "As sales seem to be getting hit, they're pulling cost containment and cost reduction levers all over the place. I still expect a major restructuring."
IBM said revenue would have decreased only 1 percent were it not for currency fluctuations, but sales were down in all major geographic areas.
Revenue in services, IBM's largest business segment, dropped 4 percent, but IBM was able to ink $17.2 billion in new services contracts. That was a healthy showing that demonstrates companies are still forking out for outsourcing and other technical support contracts, which are often viewed as moneysavers in the long run.
Hardware revenue fell 18 percent. Mainframe revenue fell 6 percent, and sales of lower-end servers based on industry-standard processors fell 32 percent.
"IBM has enjoyed certain attributes that other tech stocks don't enjoy. They have recurring revenue streams that also translate into profitability,'' said Keith Wirtz, chief investment officer for Fifth Third Asset Management. "That's great for IBM and that's one of the reasons why, in today's uncertain environment, IBM's a very attractive name to hold.''
- Reuters and AP contributed to this report.
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- They may have wrecked their companies or saved our economy. Tell us what you think.
- Big pharma embraces social media, but how much should a tightly regulated sector say on Facebook or Twitter?
- A European dating site finds lovelorn singles from one country to be consistently uglier. Which is it?
- Contributor David Pogue looks at two of the latest efforts to perfect the digital pocket camera.
- PepsiCo is ramping up its onsite health facilities for workers.













