IBM Common StockIBMDON'T BUYOct 16, 2019Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Nov 10, 2026. Market Open.
They transition from hardware to services and software. The stock ran up on the hype leading the earnings, but then that enthusiasm vanished. Any revenue miss impacts earnings and sentiment. IBM is interesting in the long term, but IBM has been considered dead money in the past. You get a decent dividend and management is good.
We had these stocks that were growing off of AI, and they've been delivering spectacular growth. But they've also had spectacular increases in share prices, which becomes a potential source of volatility.
The question is whether valuations are too high given projected growth? As we've seen here, some of the price adjustments can be pretty abrupt.
IBM should be killing it now--huge--considering macro tech trends like machine-learning, but IBM doesn't, can't, make it happen. They were a hardware business then acquired software businesses which increased their profits. After that, they bought back shares, which is a good idea in general, but IBM should not have. Rather, they should have reinvested to innovate. He doesn't know if their Red Hat deal will work out.