IBM bets big on cloud computing

Article Excerpt

IBM has a long history of responding to rapid changes in computer technology. As demand for its consulting services and mainframe computers slows, it’s now investing heavily in cloud computing (where customers access software on the web), analytics and artificial intelligence. We feel the company’s upcoming acquisition of open-source software maker Red Hat will accelerate its transformation, and increase IBM’s earnings for many years to come. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $140 (New York symbol IBM, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 889.9 million; Market cap: $124.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.6; Dividend yield: 4.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ibm.com) is one of the world’s largest computer companies with operations in over 175 countries. Due to declining demand for its traditional mainframe computers and consulting services, the company is aggressively expanding in to faster-growing fields. They include cloud computing (accessing software programs via the Internet and storing data on remote servers) and analytics software (using IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence technology) to process increasingly large…