IBM’s shift will pay off

Article Excerpt

IBM $157.90 (New York symbol IBM; Shares outstanding: 984.7 million; Market cap: $155.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.3%; www.ibm.com) continues to transition from selling mainframes and consulting services into high-growth areas like cloud computing and analytics software, which can process huge amounts of data. IBM has successfully shifted from unprofitable businesses to fast-growing ones in the past, but investors remain cautious of the latest changes in a time of rapidly evolving technology and customer demands. That’s why the shares trade at just 9.9 times IBM’s forecast 2015 earnings. In the three months ended June 30, 2015, the company’s revenue fell 13.4%, to $20.8 billion from $24.1 billion. However, if you adjust for foreign exchange rates and the sale of IBM’s server business, revenue fell 1%. The company earned $3.84 a share in the latest quarter, down up 13.3% from $4.43. We still think IBM’s latest business transformation will be a success. IBM is a buy. buy…