While much has been written about the many technology companies that have been making massive moves in 2024 – Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) having crossed a $2 trillion market cap, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) having become the biggest company in the world, and Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) having risen nearly 300% since January 1 – International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) have largely been ignored.
Despite this, IBM has been making significant moves this year – both in the stock market and on the business side. The world’s largest industrial research organization has been working to integrate various artificial intelligence (AI) models to fulfill different business needs and made significant progress in the arena of quantum computing.
International Business Machines also continued emphasizing its already successful focus on cloud and cognitive software.
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IBM’s work was well reflected in its earnings report covering the fourth quarter of 2023 as it saw the firm beat analyst expectations in multiple categories, including earnings per share (EPS) – $3.87 vs the expected $3.78 – and revenue – $17.38 billion vs the expected $17.30 billion.
IBM capitalizes on cloud and AI strength
The January publication presented a strong contrast to IBM’s previous reports which have generally seen a slowdown for the company and even led to a significant and immediate drop for the stock following the Q3 report in October.
Still, even the dire report for 2023’s penultimate trimester hinted at a more positive outlook for the future as it showcased the strong revenue growth of IBM’s cloud software business.
Indeed, the January report saw IBM surge more than 8% in a single day, and has, seemingly, boosted investor confidence significantly as the stock has continued its rise since and is, as of the latest stock market close on March 8, rapidly rising towards its all-time high achieved approximately a decade ago.
IBM stock price
In terms of their stock market performance, IBM shares have been continuously rising since the start of 2024 and are up 21.33% year-to-date (YTD).
The biggest surge came late in January upon the release of the Q4 report, but the uptrend has generally been steady.
More recent performance is also positive with IBM stock rising 5.26% in the last 30 days.
Still, the company’s latest closing price of $195.95 on Friday, March 8, represented a 0.30% daily decline and, paired with its 0.15% in Monday’s premarket hints that International Business Machines might not easily surpass its 2013 highs which saw IBM shares briefly rise above $200.
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