Two buys: one Canadian and one U.S.

Article Excerpt

IBM $158.63 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 943.2 million; Market cap: $150.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.8%; www.ibm. com) is one of the world’s largest computer companies, with operations in over 175 countries. In the quarter ended March 31, 2017, IBM’s earnings, excluding one-time items, fell 0.7%, to $2.26 billion from $2.27 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share profits rose 1.3%, to $2.38 from $2.35. Revenue in the quarter fell 2.8%, to $18.2 billion from $18.6 billion. That was because of slowing demand for mainframe computers and IBM’s consulting services. However, the company continues to see strong demand for its newer businesses such as cloud computing (the storage of files and programs using the Internet). It’s also developing artificial intelligence software and analytics software that can process increasingly large amounts of data. Excluding currency rates, revenue from Strategic Imperatives (IBM’s cloud, analytics and other new businesses) rose 13% in the first quarter of 2017. Those operations…