IBM Q4 Profit Beats Street View, But Shares Down 7% As Revenue Misses

(RTTNews) - International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Thursday reported an earnings for the fourth quarter that trumped Wall Street estimates. However, the company's shares slipped 7% in extended trading session after revenues failed to surpass expectations.

Armonk, New York-based IBM reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.36 billion or $1.51 per share, down from $3.67 billion or $4.11 per share last year.

Excluding items, IBM's adjusted earnings were $2.07 per share for the period, down from $4.71 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.79 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

IBM's fourth-quarter revenues slipped 6 percent to $20.37 billion from $21.78 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $20.67 billion for the quarter.

Total cloud revenue was $7.5 billion, up 10 percent.

"We made progress in 2020 growing our hybrid cloud platform as the foundation for our clients digital transformations while dealing with the broader uncertainty of the macro environment," said Arvind Krishna, IBM chairman and chief executive officer. "The actions we are taking to focus on hybrid cloud and AI will take hold, giving us confidence we can achieve revenue growth in 2021."

Looking forward, the company said it expects to grow revenues for the full year 2021 based on the current foreign exchange rates.

IBM closed Thursday's trading at $131.65, up $1.57 or 1.21%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, slipped $8.80 or 6.68%, in the after-hours trade.