IBM (IBM): Happy Days Are Here Again

Posted: July 18, 2007 at 3:17 pm

IBM (IBM) hit a 52-week high during the day at $111.88. The stock is up 50% over the last year. Strong earnings sent it up another 1.6% after hours.

Diluted earnings for the second-quarter 2007 were $1.50 per share, excluding this gain, an increase of 15 percent year over year. Total revenues for the second quarter of 2007 of $23.8 billion increased 9 percent. Software revenue at $4.8 billion, grew faster that the rest of the company with a 13% increase year-over-year. The segment has an 85% gross margin compared to 42% for the entire company.

Revenue from the company’s server group rose only 2% to $5.1 billion.

Wall St. had expected IBM to report a 13% rise in earnings to $1.47 a share on a 5% revenue increase to $23.07 billion for the second quarter, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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