IBM (NYSE: IBM) is reporting profit that climbed by 28 percent in its second quarter, and topped analysts’ expectations even though revenue continued to decline for the ninth consecutive quarter.
The Armonk, New York-based company says profit increased to $4.14 billion, or $4.12 per share, from $3.23 billion, or $2.91 per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $4.32 per share.
The company says revenue decreased 2 percent to $24.36 billion from $24.92 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.
Hardware sales continued to decline, but IBM noted growth in several key sectors:
- “Cloud revenue up more than 50 percent year-to-date
- “For cloud delivered as a service, second-quarter annual run rate up nearly 100 percent to $2.8 billion year-to-year
- “Business analytics revenue up 7 percent year-to-date
- “Mobile revenue up more than 100 percent year-to-date
- “Security revenue up more than 20 percent year-to-date”
“In the second quarter, we made further progress on our transformation. We performed well in our strategic imperatives around cloud, big data and analytics, security and mobile,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. “We will continue to extend and leverage our unique strengths to address the emerging trends in enterprise IT and transform our business, positioning ourselves for growth over the long term.”
The full earnings report can be read online.
IBM operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP and employs some 7,500 people across the state.
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