International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) Trading Up 0.7% – Still a Buy?

International Business Machines Co. (NYSE:IBM) shot up 0.7% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $215.39 and last traded at $215.22. 478,139 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 4,232,706 shares. The stock had previously closed at $213.69.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI increased their target price on International Business Machines from $215.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. DZ Bank lowered International Business Machines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $215.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Bank of America upped their target price on International Business Machines from $209.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of International Business Machines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Bernstein Bank upped their price objective on shares of International Business Machines from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $208.12.

International Business Machines Stock Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $218.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $192.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.06. The company has a market cap of $197.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.11, a P/E/G ratio of 4.80 and a beta of 0.71.

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The technology company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.03. International Business Machines had a return on equity of 40.52% and a net margin of 10.22%. The company had revenue of $14.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.08 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.20 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that International Business Machines Co. will post 10.11 EPS for the current year.

International Business Machines Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $1.67 per share. This represents a $6.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. International Business Machines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 97.23%.

Insider Transactions at International Business Machines

In related news, SVP Nickle Jaclyn Lamoreaux sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.20, for a total transaction of $774,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 25,390 shares in the company, valued at $5,463,928. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in IBM. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in International Business Machines by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,152,714 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $16,833,642,000 after acquiring an additional 5,546,855 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 4.1% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 8,487,827 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,467,974,000 after purchasing an additional 330,694 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in International Business Machines by 6.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,366,715 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,274,074,000 after purchasing an additional 444,698 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in International Business Machines by 6.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,796,206 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $829,431,000 after buying an additional 304,390 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in International Business Machines by 151.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,515,666 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $671,352,000 after buying an additional 2,118,165 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.96% of the company’s stock.

About International Business Machines

International Business Machines Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated solutions and services worldwide. The company operates through Software, Consulting, Infrastructure, and Financing segments. The Software segment offers a hybrid cloud and AI platforms that allows clients to realize their digital and AI transformations across the applications, data, and environments in which they operate.