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IBM's Q2 Earnings and Revenues Surpass Estimates, Shares Up

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International Business Machines Corporation (IBM - Free Report) reported second-quarter 2020 non-GAAP earnings of $2.18 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.9%. However, the bottom line fell 31% on a year-over-year basis.

Revenues of $18.12 billion outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.3% but declined 5.4% (as reported) on a year-over-year basis. At constant currency (cc), the top line fell 3.9%. Meanwhile, adjusting for currency and divested businesses, revenues were down 1.9%.

Revenues from signings declined 14% (at cc) in the second quarter to $8.2 billion. Backlog was down 1% at cc (down 4% at actual) on a year-over-year basis and amounted to $107.1 billion.

Nevertheless, total Cloud revenues were $6.3 billion during the quarter, up 30% year over year. Adjusting for currency and divested businesses, total cloud revenues increased 34%.

Notably, shares of IBM are up more than 5% in the pre-market trading on Jul 21, as the company witnessed solid uptake of cloud-based solutions and digital transformation offerings, driven by synergies from Red Hat acquisition. The upside can also be attributed to optimism on robust adoption of z15 mainframe.



On a year-to-date basis, shares of IBM are down 5.7% in the year-to-date period, compared with industry’s decline of 11.9%.

Synergies from Red Hat Acquisition

Revenues from Red Hat in the second quarter totaled $1.09 billion, reflecting an increase of 17% (up 18% at cc) on a normalized basis. The buyout has helped IBM to enhance containerized software capabilities and accelerate service engagement.  Moreover, OpenShift and Ansible have supported advancements in application and technology developments. Currently, more than 2,400 clients are using Red Hat and IBM’s hybrid cloud platform, and around 600 IBM Services clients are leveraging Red Hat technology.

Management is optimistic about enhancing utility of hybrid cloud services based on architecture built by IBM and Red Hat, by notable clients including American Express, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Banco Sabadell, Broadridge Financial Solutions, and Caixa Bank.

Geographic Revenue Details

Revenues from Americas remained flat year over year at cc (excluding divestiture impacts) and were $8.5 billion. Revenues from Europe, Middle-East and Africa were $5.7 billion, down 3% year over year. Meanwhile, revenues from Asia-Pacific declined 4% on a year-over-year basis and were $4 billion.

Cloud & Cognitive Software Segment

Cloud & Cognitive Software segment’s revenues-external rose 3% year over year (up 5% on cc basis) to $5.7 billion. The upside can be attributed to synergies from Red Hat acquisition and growth in cloud, Data & AI, security and IoT solutions. Markedly, cloud revenues soared 116% to $1.6 billion.

Revenues in the Cloud and Data platforms increased 29% year over year (up 30% on cc basis) to $2.8 billion. The platform is gaining from Red Hat’s acquisition synergies and traction in Cloud Paks suite.

Adoption of cognitive applications and transaction processing platforms was affected by the coronavirus outbreak. In May, the decline was worse than anticipated, and recovery in June failed to bring the tally to “normal levels.” Revenues from the Cognitive Applications declined 8% year over year to $1.2 billion. Revenues from the Transaction Processing Software, which includes software that runs mission-critical workloads, declined 14% on a year-over-year basis to $1.7 billion.

Global Business Services Segment

Revenues in the Global Business Services-external segment totaled $3.9 billion, which declined 7% (down 6% at cc) from the year-ago quarter.

Consulting revenues declined 3% year over year at cc to $1.9 billion. Application Management and Global Process Services revenues declined 8% and 12% (at cc) year over year to $1.7 billion and $0.2 billion, respectively.

Global Technology Services Segment

Revenues from Technology Services-external fell 8% (down 5% at cc) from the year-ago quarter to $6.3 billion.

Segmental revenues pertaining to cloud advanced 20% at cc from the prior-year quarter’s reported figure to $2.4 billion.

Infrastructure & Cloud Services and Technical Support Services revenues declined 5% and 6% (at cc) year over year to $4.8 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.
 

Systems Revenues

Systems revenues-external rose 6% at cc on a year-over-year basis to $1.9 billion, primarily owing to growth in the IBM Z and Storage Systems.

Systems Hardware revenues increased 13% (at cc) year over year to $1.5 billion. Operating Systems Software declined 13% (at cc) year over year to $0.4 billion.

IBM Z revenues surged 68% year over year courtesy of gains from innovation in z15 mainframe, and higher demand for data privacy and resiliency solutions across hybrid cloud. However, Power revenues fell 28% from the year-ago quarter.

Storage revenues improved 3% year over year owing to growth in high-end storage systems.

Segmental revenues pertaining to cloud advanced 22% at cc from the prior-year quarter’s reported figure to $0.8 billion.

Finally, Global Financing (includes financing and used equipment sales) revenues-external fell 25% year over year and 23% at cc to $265 million.

Operating Details

Non-GAAP gross margin expanded 160 basis points (bps) year over year and came in at 49%. The gross margin benefited from synergies from Red Hat acquisition, high-value software, and systems contributions.

Non-GAAP R, D&E expenses increased 12.4% year over year to $1.58 billion.

Non-GAAP selling, general and administration (S, G&A) expenses declined 6.5% year over year to $4.96 billion.

Non-GAAP pre-tax income margin from continuing operations was 12.8% compared with year-ago period’s 16.6%.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow Details

As of Jun 30, 2020, IBM had $14.3 billion in total cash and marketable securities compared with $12 billion as of Mar 31, 2020.

As of Jun 30, 2020, total debt (which includes $21.9 billion from Global Financing debt) was $64.7 billion, compared with $64.3 billion as of Mar 31, 2020.

The company reported cash flow from operations of $3.6 billion during the second quarter, compared with $4.5 billion reported in the first quarter.

IBM generated free cash flow of $2.3 billion in the second quarter, compared with $1.4 billion reported in the first quarter.

Moreover, the company returned $1.5 billion to shareholders through dividends.

Guidance

For 2020, IBM refrained from providing any guidance, citing uncertainty stemming from coronavirus crisis.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

IBM currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are Synaptics Incorporated (SYNA - Free Report) , Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD - Free Report) , and Intel Corporation (INTC - Free Report) . While Synaptics sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present, AMD and Intel carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Synaptics, AMD and Intel are set to report earnings on Aug 5, July 28, and July 23, respectively.

Long-term earnings growth rate of AMD, Synaptics and Intel is pegged at 40.25%, 10% and 7.5%, respectively.

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