Accenture  announced that is is forming a $3 billion investment - Accenture Cloud First. The investment will happen over the next three years.Accenture estimates that only about 20% of business are in the cloud, while the pandemic unveiled a shift in how companies do business. Tickeron's analysis shows:  ACN sees MACD Histogram crosses below signal line ACN saw its Moving Average Convergence Divergence Histogram (MACD) turn negative on September 03, 2020.

International Business Machines (IBM) shares traded sharply lower Thursday, after the group posted weaker-than-expected third quarter revenue. IBM’s non-GAAP earnings for the three months ending in September declined -21.6% to $2.68 per share, a penny ahead of the Street consensus forecast. But total revenues fell -3.9% to $18 billion, which was lower than analysts' forecasts of $18.29 billion. CFO James Kavanaugh mentioned lower customer business volumes in certain markets and some multi-national clients, compared to expectations. Nevertheless, IBM's cloud and cognitive software business, in which it has incorporated Red Hat, experienced a +6.4% rise in revenue to $5.28 billion.The company’s cloud services revenues rose +11% to $5 billion. But the company's  largest segment, global technology services, saw revenues decline -5.6% to $6.7 billion. For the full-year, IBM expects non-GAAP earnings of around $12.80 per share, a figure that is in line with its

DXC Technology shares fell -4.4% Thursday, following a price target cut from a  Wells Fargo Securities analyst. Analyst Ed Caso lowered his price target for the information technology company to $32 from $46 a share.Caso also seemed concerned about a potential volatility in DXC stock price around current levels, notwithstanding current valuation levels. According to Caso, investors are increasingly concerned as to whether the company would be able to boost organic growth without meaningfully reducing the EBITDA margin outlook.

The electronic bill payment provider has seen earnings and sales grow at a consistent pace while its management efficiency measurements are really strong. The company has seen its earnings grow by 17% per year over the last three years while sales grew by 3%.Analysts expect earnings to increase by 24% for 2019 as a whole while sales are expected to increase by 160%. Fiserv boasts a return on equity of 50.7% which is well above average and the profit margin is at 27.6%, also well above average. Collectively these indicators help Fiserv get a 28 rating from the Tickeron SMR rating.

DXC Technology shares were losing more than -31% in trading Friday, following news that the company’s second quarter earnings missed estimates, margins fell from the year-ago period, and the company’s outlook that full-year earnings would fall heavily short of Wall Street estimates. The information tech company reported adjusted earnings from continuing operations of $1.74 a share in the first fiscal quarter  2020, lower than the year-ago quarter’s $1.93. The EPS also fell below Wall Street analysts’ estimates of $1.71 a share. What’s more, adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) as a percentage of revenue was 13.3% in the quarter, substantially down from 15.2% a year ago. CEO Mike Lawrie said the company is expecting adjusted earnings per share for the full year to be in the range of $7 to $7.75, far below the average Wall Street estimate of $8.20 for the year.  

On Friday, International Business Machines (IBM)  made an update on the earnings impact of its $34 billion acquisition of open-source software firm Red Hat. Information tech giant IBM said the acquisition could potentially reduce non-GAAP operating earnings for the full-year 2019 by $1.10 to "at least" $12.80 per share, compared to the $13.90 per share forecast the company published in its second-quarter earnings report on July 16. However, the company reiterated its 2019 free cash flow estimate of $12 billion.It predicts a "high single-digit" growth rate in overall operating pre-tax income for the 2020-2021 period.  Last month, IBM reported non-GAAP earnings of $3.17 per share which surpassed analysts’ estimates.

International Business Machines (IBM) completed its $34 billion acquisition of software firm Red Hat, as announced by the companies on Tuesday. Initiated in October, the deal involves IBM  paying $190 per share in cash for Red Hat, a price representing a 63% premium over the stock's price before the merger was announced.This marks IBM’ s biggest deal ever. Following the acquisition, Red Hat will be a part of IBM’s Hybrid Cloud division, according to the original announcement. IBM had previously indicated that the merger would boost its cloud infrastructure.

1 on job-search site Glassdoor for Gen Z applicants, claimed IBM CEO Ginni Rometty at CNBC’s @ Work Talent + HR Summit on Tuesday in New York City. But that’s not the only way the technology giant, which employs roughly 350,000 workers, knows who in the workforce is currently searching for a new position.IBM artificial intelligence technology is now 95 percent accurate in predicting workers who are planning to leave their jobs, said Rometty.

Thanks in large part to its cloud and digital services expansion, Accenture crushed earnings estimates for its fiscal second quarter, in addition to raising its full-year outlook. For the three months ended February, the global consulting company’s diluted earnings came in at $1.73 per share, surpassing analysts’ expectations of  $1.57.The group's gross margin increased 30 basis points to 29.2%. Accenture’s total revenues increased +5.44% year-over-year to $10.45 billion, also exceeding analysts' estimates of $10.3 billion.

IBM (IBM -0.1%) announces the official availability of its IBM Blockchain World Wide real-time payments network for regulated financial institutions in a growing number of markets. Read More...

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. is set to purchase Worldpay for about $35 billion. “Scale matters in our rapidly changing industry,” said FIS Chief Executive Officer Gary Norcross, who will lead the combined company. The FIS deal, valuing Worldpay at about $43 billion including debt, comes a little more than a year after U.S. firm Vantiv paid $10.63 billion for the payments firm, which was set up in Britain and spun off from Royal Bank of Scotland in 2010. FIS and Worldpay combined will have annual revenue of about $12 billion and adjusted core earnings of about $5 billion. Worldpay is a player in card payments, mainly in Britain, while FIS, produces software for banks and asset managers.

The analyst set a new price target of  $45 a share – around +52% higher compared to the consumer directed benefits/tax benefits-management firm’s current stock price. Wells Fargo’s upgrade on WageWorks comes a month after Zacks Investment Research upped its rating on the stock to "hold".Although SunTrust Banks analyst Tobey Sommer cut his target price to $50 a share for WageWorks in February, he maintained his "buy" rating on the stock.  

IBM and Banco Santander have recently entered into a five-year global technology agreement, valued at $700 million to boost Santander’s digital transformation. For Santander, the five-year global technology agreement is in-line with the Spanish lender's business transformation program.The company is seeking to move to a more open, flexible and modern IT environment that delivers better and more innovative digital services for its customers. For IBM, this marks a good start for 2019 as it continues to rack-up a huge $700 million financial services contract, as well as agreements with ICBC Argentina and the card unit of Hyundai and Kia Motors. Following this deal, Santander is set to use the IBM's A.I., blockchain and big data offerings, which is expected to help in the transition of the of the bank's IT infrastructure into a hybrid and multi-color environment. The Spanish lender plans to use IBM’s Watson to improve customer experience, enhance branch advisors expertise and increase

Forecasters are less optimistic about U.S. expansion this year, though they’re nearly unanimous in their expectations that a recession can be kept at bay until at least 2020, a National Association for Business Economics survey showed Monday.Read More...

Shares of IBM surged nearly 5% after the company reported Q4 results that beat EPS and revenue estimates, even though revenue was down 3.5% on a y-o-y basis. Q4's adjusted earnings for IBM stood at $4.87, beating EPS estimates by 3 cents.Sales for the quarter stood at $21.76 billion, approximately $10 million above the consensus estimates. IBM also issued strong FY2019 earnings guidance and is optimistic it can produce free cash flow of approximately $12 billion, as the Red Hat acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2019 and full-year guidance will provide more precision to last month's sale of certain software products to HCL Technologies. Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and CEO explained that a growing demand for IBM’s services and leadership solutions in hybrid cloud, AI, analytics and security led to the full-year revenue growth.

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since June 1979.READ MORE...

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) will be selling some of its software business to Indian software services exporter HCL Technologies for $1.8 billion. Some of the products to be divested include IBM’s secure device management product BigFix, marketing automation product Unica and workstream collaboration product Connections.Slowing revenues of IBM’s software products and/or its increasing focus on cloud computing could potentially have led to the decision.   IBM is in the process of acquiring U.S. open-source software company Red Hat Inc. for $34 billion - a deal that was announced earlier this year. 

On Thursday, IBM announced an agreement reached with India’s HCL Technologies Ltd. to sell them select IBM software assets for $1.8 billion, in line with Big Blue’s strategy to focus more on cloud computing. Representing a total addressable market of more than $50 billion, the software assets in scope include products like Appscan for secure application development, BigFix for secure device management, Unica (on-premise) for marketing automation, Commerce (on-premise) for omni-channel eCommerce, Portal (on-premise) for digital experience, Notes & Domino for email and low-code rapid application development, and Connections for work stream collaboration. Although the deal is expected to close by mid-2019, an existing licensing partnership between the two companies will continue for five of the products. IBM has been striving to emerge as a leader in the hybrid cloud market for some time now, but its declining software sales weighed heavy on its latest quarterly revenue – which m

Information Technology consulting firm Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has been trending steadily higher over the last nine and a half years.The stock hasn’t suffered any major corrections since the end of the financial crisis in 2009 and has only challenged the support of its 52-week moving average on a few occasions during this incredible run. We see on the weekly chart that the recent downturn in the stock has brought it down to its 52-week moving average.

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) announced that it will buy back $4 billion of its shares from investors, in addition to the previously scheduled $1.4 billion repurchase. The information technology/cloud computing behemoth also mentioned plans to halt share buybacks in 2020 and 2021 to stock up enough cash for its $33 billion acquisition of open-source cloud software firm Red Hat.The acquisition deal, which would be the biggest for IBM so far, might close next year - subject to regulatory & shareholder approvals. Shortly after announcing its Red Hat deal, IBM also confirmed that it will pay out, on December 10, a cash dividend of $1.57 per share.