IBM’s quarterly earnings report on Thursday beat analysts’ expectations and triggered talk that the high-tech sector is in full recovery mode.
“The bounce up in the big-customer business is encouraging,” Steven Milunovich, an analyst for Merrill Lynch, told The New York Times. “I.B.M. is a pure enterprise business. They don’t do iPods or digital cameras or the rest of consumer technology. Over all, the tone of their comments was that maybe it’s our turn now.”
IBM, which makes 60 percent of its sales overseas, was also helped by a declining dollar.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) stock climbed $3.71, or more than 4 percent, to close after the earnings were announced at $94.02 on Thursday. IBM reported revenues of $25.9 billion, a 9 percent improvement from the same quarter a year ago. That beat analyst expectations by $900 million.
The company said it had net revenues of $1.55 a share, or $2.7 billion, up from $1 billion a year earlier.
IBM also said it had signed $17 billion of new contracts for its technical services group.
IBM: www.ibm.com
