International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) Shares Up 2.6% – Here’s Why

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM)’s stock price traded up 2.6% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $312.33 and last traded at $312.0810. 3,797,232 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 3% from the average session volume of 3,669,499 shares. The stock had previously closed at $304.22.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on IBM. UBS Group reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of International Business Machines in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on International Business Machines from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered International Business Machines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday. Weiss Ratings upgraded International Business Machines from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on International Business Machines from $256.00 to $252.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, International Business Machines presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $301.85.

International Business Machines Stock Up 2.6%

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $303.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $282.04. The firm has a market cap of $291.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.89.

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $2.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.45 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $16.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.10 billion. International Business Machines had a return on equity of 37.76% and a net margin of 12.09%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.30 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that International Business Machines Corporation will post 10.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

International Business Machines Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 10th were paid a $1.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 10th. This represents a $6.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. International Business Machines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.38%.

Institutional Trading of International Business Machines

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in International Business Machines by 0.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 95,776,307 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,024,243,000 after buying an additional 724,832 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of International Business Machines by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 54,536,963 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,076,406,000 after buying an additional 147,721 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,936,235 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,444,527,000 after acquiring an additional 400,131 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of International Business Machines by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,045,156 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,809,461,000 after acquiring an additional 2,077,506 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in International Business Machines by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,302,722 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,060,536,000 after acquiring an additional 176,219 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.96% of the company’s stock.

International Business Machines Company Profile

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a global technology and consulting company headquartered in Armonk, New York. Founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and renamed IBM in 1924, the company has evolved from early electromechanical machines to a diversified technology provider serving enterprises and governments worldwide. IBM is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IBM.

IBM’s principal businesses encompass cloud computing and software, infrastructure and systems, consulting and technology services, and research and development.