IBM's quarterly results should show a solid recovery in technology spending, merely investors will presumable ambition confidence of stronger growth in 2010 before pushing its stock price many higher.
Shares of International Business Machines Corp have risen about 60 percent in the past year as the company sidestepped the worst of the downturn by cutting costs and shifting its business merge to more lucrative services and software.
"We do not expect the kind of upside that we've had in the past," said Canaccord Adams critic Peter Misek
vibram five fingers shoes, who recommends holding the stock. "The sellside in general, we overestimated the shock of the recession and underestimated IBM's ability to hack prices."
Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey held a similar outlook on IBM's results, which are deserving afterward Tuesday.
"While we expect a solid Decemberquarter report from IBM
Coach Tote Bags, we do not consider the results ambition serve as a important catalyst as the stock in both instruction, given heightened expectations," he said in a report.
Analysts aboard average expect IBM to report fourthquarter revenue of nigh $27 billion, roughly flat from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Profit per share is looked heaving to $3.47 from $3.27 a year earlier, with fullyear earnings of $9.88. The enterprise has forecast earnings of at least $9.85 a share.
But the main focus will be on IBM's 2010 perspective. Its last prophesy was for income per share of around $10 to $11.
Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said he expects IBM to forecast "at least $11.00" for the full year.
"We note that IBM's playbook over the last 2 years has been to set workable guidance and heave it," he said, citing IBM's disc of blowing consensus EPS in every of the last eight quarters and repeatedly raising guidance.
SMARTER PLANET
While the global economic downturn surely dented profit in 2009, IBM administered to climate the worst of the recession by reducing costs and shifting focus from hardware to IT software and services, which has helped bolster margins.
Today
1. Know Your Vehicle, it namely the world's largest IT services provider. Technology outsourcing, automation and advocate are some of the districts that remained relatively mighty during the downturn
the ascend in sales was cross the board, as companies sought ways to amend cost efficiency.
While numerous analysts advised not to expect too many from Tuesday's results, there were some who deem IBM shares could still be leap for more gains, especially if the global economy retrieval corners out to be stronger than expected.
Sacconaghi, for example
Coach Wallets, has an "outperform" rating and $155 amount target on the stock, which traded 0.5 percent lower at $131.62 late on Friday afternoon.
One key focus is corporate technology spending, which has lagged behind an upturn in the consumer segment.
Some were also bullish about the company's longerterm strategies. Those contain its "smarter planet" initiative
rosetta stone italian demo, which intentions to combine IBM's software and services with its sprouting analytics business, helping governments and companies favor utilities sprint actions more efficiently.
But some analysts pointed to longterm risks as well, including the emergence of new rivals like Cisco Systems Inc in servers. While software and services account for a majority of the company's revenue, servers remain an opener and integral part of its sales.
Cisco announced final annual namely it was entering the server market, a migrate that put it in direct rivalry with IBM for well as HewlettPackard Co.
IBM, for its part, has stepped up its partnership with Cisco's smaller antagonist, Juniper Networks Inc.
which are deserving afterward Tuesday.
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