IBM reports a surprise increase in revenue in the first quarter

International Business Machines Inc. (NYSE: IBM) reported an unexpected increase in its first-quarter revenue on Monday. The company said that its financial performance in Q1 was better than what analysts had anticipated.

IBM shares were reported more than 3% up in after-hours trading on Monday. The stock is now exchanging hands at £98.23 per share. In comparison, International Business machines had started the year at a per-share price of a lower £88.61.

IBM’s Q1 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

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IBM said that its net income in the first quarter printed at £682.72 million that translates to 76 pence per share. In the comparable quarter of last year, its net income stood at a higher £840 million, or 94 pence per share.

On an adjusted basis, the American multinational earned £1.27 per share in Q1 versus the year-ago figure of £1.32 per share. IBM valued its revenue in the recent quarter at £12.68 billion, compared to £12.56 billion last year.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to post £12.38 billion of revenue in the first quarter. Their estimate for adjusted per-share earnings was capped at a lower £1.21. In the prior quarter (Q4), the Armonk-based company had noted a 6% decline in revenue.

Other prominent figures in IBM’s earnings report on Monday include £4.55 billion of revenue from global technology services in Q1, £3.89 billion of revenue from its cloud and cognitive software business, £3.02 billion of revenue from global business services, and £1.02 billion of systems revenue. The tech giant reported total cloud revenue of £4.65 billion in the recent quarter.

Chief Executive Arvind Krishna’s comments on Monday

CEO Arvind Krishna commented on the earnings report on Monday and said:

“Strong performance this quarter in cloud, driven by increasing client adoption of our hybrid cloud platform, and growth in software and consulting enabled us to get off to a solid start for the year. While we have more work to do, we are confident we can achieve full-year revenue growth, and meet our adjusted free cash flow target in 2021.”

In separate news from the United States, Coinbase CEO sold £208.62 million in shares on opening day.

IBM performed slightly downbeat in the stock market last year with an annual decline of close to 6%. At the time of writing, it is valued at £85 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 21.27.