Market Update (NYSE:IBM): IBM tries to bolster cloud growth with developer tools

[Reuters] – In doing so, they often sidestep more expensive IBM technology, meaning IBM needs to bolster its own cloud offerings to compete. The new tools help developers work faster, build more functions into existing software applications and create predictive analytics apps. “IBM has a tremendous asset,” Derek Schoettle, general manager for IBM’s analytics platform and cloud data services, said of its customer base. Read more on this. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) , valued at $123.31B, began trading this morning at $125.24. Looking at the equity, the company’s one day range is $125.00 to $128.50 with the price of the stock fluctuating between $118.00 to $176.30 over the last 52 weeks. IBM shares are currently priced at 9.24x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry ’s 7.94x earnings multiple. The company pays shareholders $5.20 per share in dividend income per year, for a current yield of 4.17%. In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 19 sell-side analysts are looking at $2.08 per share, which would be $0.83 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.86 sequential decrease. What we find to be interesting is that the full-year EPS estimate of $13.50 is a $1.42 setback when compared to the previous year’s annual results. The quarterly earnings estimate is based on a consensus revenue forecast of the current quarter of $18.24 Billion. If realized, that would be a 6.89% decrease over the year-ago quarter. More recently, JMP Securities Initiated IBM at Mkt Outperform (Nov 20, 2015). Previously, Cantor Fitzgerald Initiated IBM at to Hold. Investors should keep in mind is that the average price target is $132.15, which is 5.52% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:IBM) Similar Articles: Company Update: International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) – Chumbak Selects IBM Cloud to Accelerate Business Growth Market Update: International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) – CSC Embraces IBM Cloud to Accelerate Hybrid Cloud Adoption Stock Update: International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) – New IBM Cloud Tools Accelerate Developer Use of Streaming Analytics and Data Warehouse Services on Bluemix