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. In fact, major clients worldwide, such as BNP Paribas, are now pinning their hopes on IBM as the latter can offer unmatched industry experience that could uplift their business based on innovation.
Cognitive Solutions business reported revenues of $5.46 billion after +2% y-o-y growth (in constant currency) and Global Business Services recorded revenues of $4.32 billion after sustaining a +6% y-o-y growth. But the shinning stars in IBM’s revenue mix were the Cloud business and Strategic Imperatives business, which recorded impressive 12% and 9% y-o-y growth. Strategic imperatives (cloud and data analysis among others) reported revenue of $39.8 billion for 2018.