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IBM (IBM) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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IBM (IBM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $130.02, moving +0.71% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.43% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.5%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.26%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the technology and consulting company had lost 14.59% over the past month. This has lagged the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 6.53% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.68% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from IBM as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 17, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $4.86, down 6.18% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $21.79 billion, down 3.32% from the year-ago period.

IBM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $13.81 per share and revenue of $79.63 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +0.07% and +0.62%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for IBM. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. 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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. IBM is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, IBM currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.35. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.02, which means IBM is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that IBM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.88. 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. IBM's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.88 as of yesterday's close.

The Computer - Integrated Systems industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 56, putting it in the top 22% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. 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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