IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) shares continue to tumble in the wake of its weak earnings and news that Warren Buffett of Berkshire (NYSE: BRK-B) has sold off some of his shares. IBM stock has dropped 10% in the last month to $155. Shares in its two major rivals have risen over the same period.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is generally considered the global market share leader in cloud computing, a sector in which IBM is desperate for success. Amazon’s shares are up nearly 4% in the last month to $934. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), another cloud leader has posted a 5% share improvement in the last month to $69. In addition, Microsoft and Amazon trade near their all time highs. In IBM’s case, its stock is not even close. Additionally, IBM’s market cap is $146 billion. Amazon’s is $446 billion, and Microsoft’s $532 billion.
Two things happened at IBM in the last quarter that Wall St. does not like. The first was poor financial performance. The other was an attempt by Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer to make the numbers look better than they were.
IBM’s revenue for the period dropped 3.1% to $18.2 billion. Revenue among its strategic imperatives business, which IBM sales are essential to its future rose only 12% to $7.8 billion. Cloud revenue was up 33% to $3.5 billion. The cloud sector is exploding, so the IBM numbers are modest.
Rometty commented:
“In the first quarter, both the IBM Cloud and our cognitive solutions again grew strongly, which fueled robust performance in our strategic imperatives. In addition, we are developing and bringing to market emerging technologies such as blockchain and quantum, revolutionizing how enterprises will tackle complex business problems in the years ahead.”
This completely dodges the issue of overall revenue performance and earnings. Most importantly, it does not address how IBM will pull out of its many dilemmas
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