IBM can’t seem to escape the slippery slope. On the contrary, the company keeps posting disappointing revenue figures. IBM has just released its quarterly revenue situation, and charts show that this has been the 21st quarter of straight revenue decline.
IBM’s Straight Revenue Decline Marks a 4% Decrease over the Last Five Years
On Wednesday, IBM made public its financial results for the ending quarter. Some analysts highlighted a 4% revenue decline over the past five years. Even though the changes are not that sharp, it is the consistency with which the line goes down that calls for an IBM crisis.
The new report reveals that the revenue numbers were down 4.7% to $19.3 billion compared to the previous year. The numbers were recorded for the three-month period ending June 30. On the other hand, the company did succeed to go beyond the expectations of a projected profit by 18 cents. However, this hike was possible only thanks to a tax gain that boosted the numbers for a moment.
Executives Gave an Optimistic Statement on Their Company’s Situation
On top of that, profits slipped 6.9% to $2.3 billion compared to previous year. IBM shares fell to $2.48. Despite this unsettling straight revenue decline, IBM executives are optimistic. All this time they’ve been working on a complex transition from computer hardware to modern trends such as artificial intelligence, the Internet could services and cybersecurity.
Therefore, executives decided to look only at the numbers that these recent targets achieved. For instance, their cloud services business scored a revenue of $3.9 billion in three months, which is 15% increase from previous year. Not only that, but the analytics unit registered a 4% improvement to $5.1 billion.
Even though IBM’s new directions made up for 43% of IBM’s revenue in the last 12 months, it is still not enough to belittle the strong influence the traditional units still hold in the organization. Company’s efforts to buy back stock and cover dividends barely made a difference. Back in March, the shares were worth $181.95 while on Wednesday the trading day opened at $150.02 which marks a 17.5% decrease.
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