IBM Smiles on Earnings Beat Expectations... Stock Price Up 4%

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunjin Jeong] IBM announced third-quarter (July-September) revenue results that exceeded market expectations.

On the 19th (local time), according to Bloomberg News and others, IBM reported third-quarter revenue of $14.1 billion (approximately 20.2 trillion KRW), a 6.5% increase compared to the same period last year. This surpasses the market expectation of $13.5 billion compiled by financial information provider Refinitiv. Earnings per share were $1.81, exceeding the expected $1.77.

By sector, demand for software, mainframe computers, and hybrid cloud services showed strong performance. Software revenue increased by 7.5% to $5.8 billion, consulting revenue rose 5.4% to $4.7 billion, and infrastructure revenue grew 14.8% to $3.35 billion.

CEO Arvind Krishna explained, "Based on current results, we now expect mid-to-high single-digit revenue growth for the full year." He evaluated that IT demand is very solid in the Americas and Asia regions, but predicted a slight downturn in Europe due to energy price fluctuations and inflation.

IBM also stated that its performance was impacted by the strong dollar. IBM forecasted that third-quarter revenue was reduced by 9 percentage points due to exchange rate fluctuations, and on an annual basis, revenue could decline by about 7 percentage points.

Following the earnings announcement, IBM's stock price rose about 4% in after-hours trading.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.