Stephens Inc. AR Decreases Holdings in International Business Machines Corporation $IBM

Stephens Inc. AR lowered its position in International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) by 5.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 67,057 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,799 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in International Business Machines were worth $16,302,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of IBM. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 424.6% in the fourth quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 260,740 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,234,000 after purchasing an additional 211,040 shares in the last quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA raised its position in shares of International Business Machines by 19.1% during the 4th quarter. GLOBALT Investments LLC GA now owns 18,288 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,417,000 after purchasing an additional 2,930 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 30.0% during the 4th quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 13,122 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,887,000 after buying an additional 3,029 shares in the last quarter. Rice Partnership LLC purchased a new position in shares of International Business Machines during the 4th quarter valued at $3,317,000. Finally, Sage Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in International Business Machines in the 4th quarter worth $4,101,000. 58.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on IBM. Wolfe Research cut International Business Machines to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised International Business Machines from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $291.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of International Business Machines in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Susquehanna assumed coverage on International Business Machines in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp cut International Business Machines to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $306.76.

International Business Machines Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE IBM opened at $288.95 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $271.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.68. International Business Machines Corporation has a 52-week low of $212.34 and a 52-week high of $332.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $256.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $266.06.

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The technology company reported $1.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.81 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $15.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.60 billion. International Business Machines had a net margin of 15.61% and a return on equity of 37.23%. The business’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.60 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that International Business Machines Corporation will post 12.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

International Business Machines Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 8th were issued a dividend of $1.69 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $6.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. This is a boost from International Business Machines’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.68. International Business Machines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.77%.

International Business Machines Company Profile

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a global technology and consulting company headquartered in Armonk, New York. Founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and renamed IBM in 1924, the company has evolved from early electromechanical machines to a diversified technology provider serving enterprises and governments worldwide. IBM is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IBM.

IBM’s principal businesses encompass cloud computing and software, infrastructure and systems, consulting and technology services, and research and development.