WASHINGTON: New York-based enterprise technology firm International Business Machines Corp. posted its nineteenth consecutive fall in revenues when it reported its fourth quarter earnings on Thursday, despite the fact it beat analyst estimates on both its top and bottom lines. Adjusted earnings per share for IBM were $5.01, with revenue of $21.77bn. Analysts had estimated that the firm would report $4.88 EPS on revenue of $21.64bn.
Earnings per share were 4% higher than for the corresponding quarter in 2015, while revenues were down by 1%. The company has overseen impressive growth in their cloud sector in recent months, with revenue for its technology platforms hitting $9.3bn, better than forecasts froim experts. “In 2016, our strategic imperatives grew to represent more than 40 percent of our total revenue and we have established ourselves as the industry’s leading cognitive solutions and cloud platform company,” Ginni Rometty, chief executive of IBM said in a statement. Shares in IBM intitially traded 3% higher in after-hours trading but were reversed to a loss of 2.34% at $162.90 by the end of extended trading.
