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IBM (IBM) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, IBM (IBM - Free Report) closed at $121.16, marking a +0.22% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.54%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.64%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.95%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the technology and consulting company had gained 0.04% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 3.66% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.97% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from IBM as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be January 17, 2019. On that day, IBM is projected to report earnings of $4.86 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 6.18%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $21.77 billion, down 3.45% from the prior-year quarter.

IBM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $13.81 per share and revenue of $79.56 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +0.07% and +0.53%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for IBM. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. IBM is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, IBM currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.75. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.54, which means IBM is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that IBM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.76. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Computer - Integrated Systems industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.76 as of yesterday's close.

The Computer - Integrated Systems industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 166, which puts it in the bottom 35% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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