International Business Machines released its latest earnings report tonight after closing bell. The company posted adjusted earnings of $3.29 per share on $19.2 billion in sales. Analysts had been expecting IBM to post $3.23 per share in earnings and $19 billion in revenue. In last year’s third quarter, the tech giant posted $19.28 billion in revenue.
IBM’s emerging growth strategies continue
IBM’s GAAP earnings amounted to $2.98 per share.
The company invested $5 billion in what it calls “strategic imperatives,” which include a number of emerging growth areas such as the cloud, mobile computing, security, analytics and social, and it said prior to tonight’s report that this segment is the big one for investors to watch. Strategic imperatives revenue grew 16% year over year to $8 billion for an annual run rate of $31.8 billion over the last 12 months. Over the last 12 months, Cloud revenue was $12.7 billion. The annual run rate of IBM’s Cloud-as-a-Service reached $7.5 billion in the third quarter, marking a 66% increase year over year.
IBM plans to keep investors up to date on how it is doing in these areas and has said that it expects 40% of its sales to fall into one of these emerging growth categories by 2018. It achieved that goal in the third quarter. Two years ago, only 22% of its revenues were in these areas. In the second quarter, they made up 38% of total revenues, reaching $30.7 billion in sales over the last year.
“Our ability to apply deep expertise and breakthrough technology, led by Watson and the IBM Cloud, to massive amounts of data is enabling us to build new markets and transform industries,” said IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty in a statement. “Whether it is banks implementing IBM blockchain solutions, hospitals leveraging Watson to fight cancer, or retailers using cognitive apps built on the IBM Cloud to transform the customer experience, clients across all industries are tapping into a new kind of innovation value from IBM.”
IBM reaffirms guidance
IBM still expects non-GAAP earnings of at least $13.50 per share for the full year and at least $12.23 per share in GAAP earnings.
Shares of IBM slumped in after-hours trades, falling by as much as 1.78% to $152.02.