IBM has reported stronger than expected Q4 results with earnings of $3,35 per share on revenue of $16.7bn. Analysts expected IBM to announce revenues of about $16bn – the beat pushed IBM’s stock by up to 7 percent before closing 5.7 percent up. Revenues were 6.5 percent up on the same period last year.
IBM’s disclosures reveal a complex set of results with a variety of good, bad and ugly operating units. Consulting was up 13 percent, Hybrid cloud was up 13 percent and Red Hat was up 19 percent. However, its infrastructure busines was down, support was flat and financing was down a whopping 28 percent.
The results come a few days after IBM announced that it was continuing to off-load non-core business units as it shed healthcare and data analytics business to Francisco Partners. The full year results are also heavily skewed by the disposal of Kyndryl back in November 2021. More on this in the next issue of ERP Today.
Arvind Krishna, IBM chairman and chief executive officer, said: “We increased revenue in the fourth quarter with hybrid cloud adoption driving growth in software and consulting. “Our fourth-quarter results give us confidence in our ability to deliver our objectives of sustained mid-single digit revenue growth and strong free cash flow in 2022.”
