Overview
- IBM reported third-quarter revenue of $17.10 billion and adjusted earnings of $2.95 per share, beating Wall Street estimates and lifting shares in after-hours trading.
- Software revenue rose about 8% to $7.8 billion, prompting management to raise its annual software growth outlook to roughly 7%–8%.
- The finance chief said about 25% of transaction-processing revenue reflected deals pushed out of the prior quarter, and analysts estimated roughly $250 million of the software lift came from those delayed deals.
- Infrastructure revenue grew modestly to about $3.7 billion driven by a 31% jump in distributed servers and storage, while IBM Z mainframe revenue fell sharply, showing a shift in customer spending.
- IBM boosted its full-year free cash flow forecast by more than $1 billion and agreed during the quarter to acquire HRL Laboratories, but analysts cautioned that the rebound’s durability remains uncertain.