Is Wall Street turning on IBM’s Rometty? Analysts, media grumble

IBM Chair and CEO Ginni Rometty is four years into her transformation efforts at Big Blue, but another quarterly earnings report sent shares down 5 percent in after-hours trading Monday.

IBM (NYSE: IBM), which employs thousands across North Carolina, beat Street expectations yet investor’s reaction and how the media reported the company’s continuing challenges could show patience with Rometty is beginning to run out.

Note comments from two Street financial firms:

“If the strategic imperatives are really working, then the company’s growth rate should be improving,” said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., before the earnings news. “The evidence so far has suggested that has not happened.”
“While we believe IBM has made solid progress in transforming itself to focus on strategic areas, we believe the crossover point to drive revenue growth is likely still a number of quarters away,” added analysts at Wells Fargo Securities.

Rometty is doubling down on her strategy with strong indications coming that IBM will continue to make acquisitions even as it reduces its work force focused on traditional IT services.

And as TheStreet notes, some traditional IBM segments are in the “crater.”

At Technology Business Research, Rometty’s efforts are seen as paying off. But elsewhere, attitudes are much more lukewarm.

To capture sentiment among Wall Street financial reporting, here are some samples:

Wall Street Journal

“International Business Machines Corp.’s Virginia Rometty is still hunting for a turnaround some four years into her tenure as chief executive.

“The Armonk, N.Y., company Monday reported first-quarter revenue slid 4.6% and profit fell a steeper 13.5% as its products have become increasingly threatened by an industry move to computing services delivered over the Internet. IBM has posted revenue declines for four straight years.”

Read the details at:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-profit-falls-as-revenue-declines-again-1461010786

The New York Times

”IBM delivered a quarterly performance that shows the steady headway it is making in new businesses led by cloud computing and data-analysis software, like its Watson artificial intelligence technology.

“But the company’s transformation remains very much a work in progress. The erosion of some of its hardware and software products continues to be a drag on growth and profits, overshadowing the gains in the new fields.”

Read more at:

re/code

“If shareholders had been hoping for Big Blue to bump up its guidance, CFO Martin Shroeter poured cold water on those hopes, saying on CNBC that the company plans to invest heavily in the coming year and so “it’s prudent to leave the guidance where it is.”

“You might be smart to replace Shroeter’s choice of the word ‘investing’ with the phrase ‘buying more companies.’ IBM has announced plans to buy at least eight companies in the first four months of the year alone, and 21 since the start of 2015.”

Read the full story at:

http://recode.net/2016/04/18/ibm-earnings-beat-street-guidance-shares-fall/

Forbes

“IBM reported a major beat in its Q1 earnings on Monday, clearing earnings estimates of $2.09 by $0.26 at $2.35 per share. But although revenue also came in far ahead of consensus, beating expectations of $18.28 billion by $420 million at $18.7 billion, that number dropped for the sixteenth consecutive quarter as shared plunged in after-hours tradings.

“The latest check-in on Big Blue’s transition to a cloud computing company revealed that IBM now makes 37% of its total revenue from its “strategic imperatives,” which represent IBM’s cloud portfolio, Watson’s AI and analytics, security, social and mobile. The company grew those businesses by 17% in constant currency, totaling $29.8 billion in revenue.”

Get the details at:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2016/04/18/ibm-shares-drop-in-after-hours-trading-after-reporting-a-major-beat-on-q1-earnings/#2859490244c3

TheStreet

“The company this quarter also reshuffled how it reports divisions to better reflect its new focus but the new nomenclature didn’t help: Cognitive Solutions, which bundles the Watson super-computer unit with transaction processing, analytics and commerce and security units, saw revenue decline 1.7%, Global Business Services fell 4.3% and Technology Services and Cloud Platforms slipped 1.5%.

“Its Systems division, which sells computers and the software needed to run them, saw sales crater 21.5%. All were affected adversely by the dollar’s health.”

Get the story at:

http://www.thestreet.com/story/13534981/1/strong-dollar-helps-ibm-as-earnings-growth-remains-wanting.html

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