Reuters High Risk Alert for IBM (Interesting, as IBM hangs close to its support.)
dai.investor.reuters.com
Here are some noteworthy situations from the High risk alert group...
International Business Machines (IBM.N): On paper, it's hard not to like IBM. Even in this day and age, it remains one of the biggest and most recognizable technology companies, and with a sustained upswing in IT spending increasingly likely, that should be a good thing for investors. Moreover, its service-focused business strategy seems to nicely align the company with where the business world is going, to wit, an increasing number of companies recognizing that IT is not their main endeavor and, hence, choosing to outsource more and more. The negatives come when I expand my view to include other companies, and re-phrase the question away from "Why not IBM?" to instead ask "Why IBM?" Others, such as Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) are also in the services game. Can IBM beat its rivals? Who knows? It certainly did not do that in hardware to the extent anticipated by previous generations of IBM bulls. And from a data perspective, IBM is not exactly overloaded with above-industry showings, something stressed heavily in ReutersSelect screens, none of which include IBM as of this writing. If you want to lean against the High risk alert score, so be it. But just make sure your reasons are more substantial than the old refrain "You can't go wrong with IBM." Frankly, nothing more than that is jumping up at me right now. |
