IBM
First-quarter profit jumped 13 percent, and the technology company offered evidence that the recovery in corporate technology spending is picking up speed. IBM said it earned $2.6 billion, or $1.97 per share, in the first three months of the year. In the same period of 2009 it earned $2.3 billion, or $1.70 per share.
The improvement came not just from cost-cutting, which IBM relied on much of last year to raise profits. In the most recent quarter, revenue climbed 5 percent to $22.9 billion, a bigger jump than what the company had in the last three months of 2009, when revenue grew just under 1 percent from the year before.
The first-quarter results beat average analyst estimates from Thomson Reuters of $1.93 per share on revenue of $22.8 billion.
IBM said the first-quarter revenue would have been flat at constant currency rates. Deals in other currencies translate into more dollars when the U.S. currency is weak. However IBM said it expects revenue growth in the current quarter even without accounting for currency fluctuations. IBM increased its 2010 earnings-per-share forecast to $11.20. Analysts were expecting $11.12.
“Looking ahead, we are confident in our ability to grow revenue,” IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano said in a statement. The Associated Press
