(12PressRelease.com) International Business Machines Corp. is expected to report significant gains in profits and sales during the publication of the fourth quarter after the close next Tuesday, largely because of demand for computer hardware giant.
Analysts polled by FactSet Research expect quotes/comstock/13 IBM *! IBM / appointment / nls / IBM (IBM‘s 150.00, 1.18, 0.79%) to report the income of 4.08 dollars per share and $ 28.2 billion of revenue for the period ending in December.
This compares with earnings of $ 3.59 per share and $ 27.2 billion in revenue during the same period last year.
Wall Street generally expects Big Blue to report positive results from the sale of hardware, though it may be replaced with less promising business news service.
Analyst Ben Reitzes with Barclays Capital told clients in a research note recently that IBM hardware companies expected to benefit from strong demand for its range of computer system z mainframe, which was renovated this summer.
While brisk sales of the device should provide assistance to business partners of IBM software, a service company of the company is not expected that the same price Reitzes wrote.
“The market for large deals still slow, and IBM has seen increased competition in the outsourcing of smaller rivals,†wrote the analyst.
Reitzes is a $ 153 target price of IBM shares.
The shares have risen about 6% in the last three months, compared with a profit of 12% for the Nasdaq Composite / quotes/comstock/10y i: comp (COMP 2755, 20.01, 0.73%) during the same period, closing $ 148.82 on Thursday.
Caris & Co. analyst Robert cihr took a more offensive position in the IBM Business Services, told clients in a recent research note that “self-service and signatures which have struggled in recent quarters, showed a better end this year. â€
The analyst believes that IBM has seen nearly 18 billion songs in the fourth quarter.
software sales are likely to turn up 2% and 3% in the quarter compared to the same period last year, while the share of “enormous 46% of the profits of IBM,†during the period, CIHR wrote.