IBM Profit Rises, Sales Miss Expectations
NEW YORK (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) on Tuesday reported its third-quarter profit that met expectations, but the world's largest computer maker's sales fell below what analysts had hoped for, even as the company posted sales growth for the first time in a year.
The Armonk, N.Y.-based company reported third-quarter net income of $2.0 billion, or $1.08 per share, compared with net income of $1.70 billion, or 90 cents, a year ago, excluding certain one-time gains. That met analysts' consensus estimate of $1.08 per share, as compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial.
Sales rose 3 percent to $21.8 billion, missing analysts' forecasts for sales of $22.4 billion. A weak euro hurt sales growth by reducing the total amount of revenue when converted back into dollars. Without the currency effect, sales would have risen 6 percent, IBM said. In the third quarter of last year, IBM reported sales of $21.14 billion.
Big Blue said in a statement that sales were held back by three things. Chairman and Chief Executive Louis Gerstner in a statement said: ``Demand for our microelectronics products...far outstripped our ability to supply components. Second, the upcoming release of our new high-end server slowed demand for our System 390 family of servers. Finally, parts of our software business slowed unexpectedly in September.'' |
