IBM shares went up more than 8% on Wednesday after the tech company managed to beat both the top and bottom lines and announced its first ever annual revenue growth since 2011.
The company earned an adjusted $4.87 per share on revenue of $21.76 billion, a bit higher than the $4.84 and $21.75 billion that was expected by surveyed analysts on Bloomberg. Going by the entire year’s worth of revenue, IBM increased by 1% to $79.86 billion, which is the company’s first annual growth in almost 8 years.
Now, its market price is amounting to up to $133 per share, putting them on track to open at their best level within a three-month span.
“In 2018 we returned to full-year revenue growth, reflecting growing demand for our services and leadership solutions in hybrid cloud, AI, analytics and security,” IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer Ginni Rometty says, “Major clients worldwide, such as BNP Paribas, are turning to the IBM Cloud and our unmatched industry expertise to transform their businesses and drive innovation.”
The results have caused the analysts at RBC Capital Markets to “raise their price target for the stock while maintaining an “outperform” rating,” Business Insider reports.
RBC analysts Amit Daryanani and Amitesh Bajad said, “Given ongoing macro volatility, this was an impressive print with gross-margins improving (y/y) for the 1st time in 3+ years. We think organically the improvement in services should be sustainable specially in H1:19 where the bar is relatively benign, maintain OP and adjusting our target to $160 (prior $155).”
