International Business Machines Corp. Investors Sell Shares On Strength

By Mani
Updated on

International Business Machines shares witnessed selling pressure Monday following an increase during trading. The stock had the fifth highest net out-flow rate for the day. IBM shares gained following several analyst reports, including one from S&P Equity Research, which upgraded the stock to to a “Buy rating in a research note last Thursday.

International Business Machines dismisses layoffs report

As reported by ValueWalk, Robert Cringely, a contributor at Forbes, reported that IBM will cull over a quarter of its global workforce as early as next week. It was reported that Big Blue will undertake the layoffs through a massive transformation project code-named “Project Chrome.” Cringely also discussed the various ramifications of the reorganization plan, including dwindling hardware sales and a lackluster services revenue stream, which leave the company looking for answers.

However, dismissing the layoff report, the computing giant said in an emailed statement: “IBM does not comment on rumors, even ridiculous or baseless ones. If anyone had checked information readily available from our public earnings statements, or had simply asked us, they would know that IBM has already announced the company has just taken a $600 million charge for workforce rebalancing. This equates to several thousand people, a small fraction of what’s been reported.”

$43.36 million moved out of IBM

On Monday, traders sold shares of IBM on strength during trading. $247.71 million flowed into the computing giant on the tick-up, and $291.07 million flowed out of the stock on the tick-down, for a money net flow of $43.36 million out of the stock. The substantial outflow in IBM witnessed Monday marked the computing giant as the fifth highest net out-flow among all stocks tracked. IBM traded up 49 cents for the day and closed at $156.36.

IBM’s shares gained Monday following several research firms’ comments on the computing giant. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated their Buy rating and pegged their target price at $198, while analysts at Morgan Stanley too reiterated their “Equal-weight rating, pegging their target price at $159. Stifel Nicolaus analysts too reiterated their Buy rating and set a $180 price target on shares of IBM.

In sum, three analysts have rated the stock with a Sell rating, 11 have assigned a Hold rating and six have issued a Buy rating on the company. IBM’s stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $175.20.

Last week while unveiling its fourth quarter fiscal 2014 earnings, IBM revealed another weak quarter in terms of revenue growth. The last quarter marked IBM’s eleventh quarter of declining revenue.

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