When International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) posted its latest earnings, its stock did what it usually does after the announcement. It fell. And it fell on a day when the market in general soared. IBM seems to think people should be impressed by 9% revenue growth in a double-digit growth tech world.
[in-text-ad]
IBM’s revenue reached $15.5 billion, which is extremely small by big tech standards. IBM’s financial reporting is messy and hard to decipher. Often it mentions percentages without dollar amounts, which is a good way to obscure real performance. The quarterly report posted some figures quarter over quarter and others year over year. IBM’s management should be ashamed.
IBM is most proud of its cloud business. The closest an observer can come to the performance of this division is that “infrastructure” division revenue rose by 19% to $4.2 billion. Some hybrid numbers appear to be rolled into other divisions.
A good way to look at how poorly IBM is doing is to examine one of the cloud computing leaders. In the most recent quarter, Microsoft had revenue of $49.9 billion, up 18%. “Intelligent cloud” revenue rose to $19.1 billion from $15.1 billion, an increase of 26%.
24/7 Wall St.A final note. IBM’s market cap is $117 billion. Microsoft’s is $1.8 trillion.
Are You Still Paying With a Debit Card?
The average American spends $17,274 on debit cards a year, and it’s a HUGE mistake. First, debit cards don’t have the same fraud protections as credit cards. Once your money is gone, it’s gone. But more importantly you can actually get something back from this spending every time you swipe.
Issuers are handing out wild bonuses right now. With some you can earn up to 5% back on every purchase. That’s like getting a 5% discount on everything you buy!
Our top pick is kind of hard to imagine. Not only does it pay up to 5% back, it also includes a $200 cash back reward in the first six months, a 0% intro APR, and…. $0 annual fee. It’s quite literally free money for any one that uses a card regularly. Click here to learn more!
Flywheel Publishing has partnered with CardRatings to provide coverage of credit card products. Flywheel Publishing and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.
Latest from 24/7
Our expert who first called NVIDIA in 2009 is predicting 2025 will see a historic AI breakthrough.
You can follow him investing $500,000 of his own money on our top AI stocks for free.