Last year’s #1 pick is still a buy

Article Excerpt

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $161 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $193.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.0; Dividend yield: 1.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) is the world’s biggest computer company. In the past few years, IBM has shifted its focus from making computers to designing computer systems and managing them on behalf of clients. The company now gets 55% of its revenue and 40% of its earnings from computer services. IBM earned $14.8 billion in 2010. That’s up 10.5% from $13.4 billion in 2009. The company spent $15.4 billion on share buybacks in 2010. Because of fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 15.1%, to $11.52 from $10.01. Revenue rose 4.3% in 2010, to $99.9 billion from $95.8 billion in 2009. The company signed $22.1 billion of new service contracts in the fourth quarter of 2010. That’s up 18% from a year earlier. On December 31, 2010, IBM’s order backlog was…