ARMONK (dpa-AFX) - International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) Monday reported an earnings for the first quarter that trumped Wall Street estimates, after the company returned to sales growth after four quarters.
Armonk, New York-based IBM reported first-quarter profit of $955 million or $1.06 per share, down from $1.18 billion or $1.32 per share last year.
Excluding items, IBM's adjusted earnings were $1.77 per share for the period, down from $1.84 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.63 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
IBM's first-quarter revenues rose 1 percent to $17.73 billion from $17.57 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $17.34 billion for the quarter.
Total cloud revenue was $6.5 billion, up 21 percent.
'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,' said CEO Arvind Krishna. '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.'
Looking forward, the company said it expects to grow revenues for the full year 2021 based on mid-April foreign exchange rates.
IBM closed Monday's trading at $133.12, down $0.47 or 0.35%, on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $3.44 or 2.58%, in the after-hours trading.
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