IBM Gains 23% in a Year: Should You Bet on the Stock Now?
1-Year IBM Stock Price Performance
IBM Rides on Hybrid Cloud, AI Demand
International Business Machines is poised to benefit from healthy demand trends for hybrid cloud and AI, which drive the Software and Consulting segments. The company's growth is expected to be aided by analytics, cloud computing and security in the long run. A combination of a better business mix, improving operating leverage through productivity gains and increased investment in growth opportunities will likely boost profitability.
IBM has extended its collaboration with NVIDIA Corporation NVDA to scale AI workloads and agentic AI applications. Per the latest agreement, IBM aims to launch a content-aware storage (CAS) capability for its hybrid cloud infrastructure offering (dubbed IBM Fusion) and expand its watsonx integrations with NVIDIA, while introducing the latest IBM Consulting capabilities.
Together, the companies will help clients transform and govern end-to-end business processes with agentic AI and monetize AI for real business outcomes. In addition, the collaboration with NVIDIA will help manage compute-intensive AI workloads across an optimized network fabric to overcome operational silos with an intelligent, scalable system that drives near real-time inference for responsive AI reasoning.
The CAS capability will enable firms to extract the hidden meaning of unstructured data for inferencing to scale and enhance AI applications without compromising on security. The integration of watsonx with NVIDIA Inference Microservices will offer greater accessibility to firms to leading AI models across multiple cloud environments.
watsonx: IBM's Core Technology Pillar
International Business Machines' watsonx is likely to be the core technology platform for its AI capabilities. watsonx delivers the value of foundational models to the enterprise, enabling them to be more productive. This enterprise-ready AI and data platform comprises three products to help organizations accelerate and scale AI.
The products are the watsonx.ai studio for new foundation models, generative AI and machine learning, the watsonx.data fit-for-purpose data store built on an open lake house architecture, and the watsonx.governance toolkit to help enable AI workflows to be built with responsibility and transparency.
IBM Boosts Cloud Security Capabilities
Neudesic, a subsidiary of IBM, has renewed its Cloud Security Specialization with Microsoft to continue delivering enterprise-grade security solutions across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The Microsoft certification validates Neudesic's ability to help clients protect critical infrastructure and data across Azure and on-premises systems by deploying Microsoft-native security capabilities.
The renewal further underscores Neudesic's deep integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, leveraging the latter's Zero Trust model to offer customized solutions that meet the highest standards for performance, governance and compliance.
Neudesic's Microsoft certification provides clients with the confidence of working with a trusted advisor who will help reduce risks, improve resiliency, and implement scalable security strategies across Azure and hybrid environments. This, in turn, will enable Neudesic to strengthen its leadership position in cloud security, likely translating to incremental revenues for its parent firm, International Business Machines.
Estimate Revision Trend of IBM
IBM is currently witnessing an uptrend in estimate revisions. Earnings estimates for 2025 have jumped 5.8% to $11.12 over the past year, while the same for 2026 has increased 6.6% to $11.93. The positive estimate revision portrays bullish sentiments about the stock's growth potential.
Key Valuation Metric
From a valuation standpoint, IBM appears to be trading cheaply relative to the industry but is trading well above its mean. Going by the price/sales ratio, shares of International Business Machines currently trade at 3.25 forward sales, lower than 3.73 for the industry but higher than the stock's mean of 1.99.
End Note
With solid fundamentals and healthy revenue-generating potential, driven by robust demand trends, IBM appears to be a solid investment proposition. Further, a strong emphasis on hybrid cloud, diligent execution of operational plans and AI focus are driving more value for customers.
Moreover, with improving earnings estimates, the stock is witnessing a positive investor perception at the moment. The stock is also trading at a relatively cheaper rate than the industry.
International Business Machines delivered a trailing four-quarter average earnings surprise of 6.3% on average. IBM currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Riding on a robust earnings surprise history and favorable Zacks Rank, it appears primed for further stock price appreciation. Consequently, investors are likely to profit if they bet on this high-flying stock.
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