After Wednesday trading hours Eastern Time, IBM released its fourth quarter financial report. The financial report shows that the company's revenue in the fourth quarter of last year was slightly better than market expectations, and at the same time, the company's forecast for full year revenue growth this year is higher than market expectations.
IBM emphasizes that in the wave of artificial intelligence, its clients are actively deploying artificial intelligence technology, which has brought stable demand for IBM's IT software and consulting services. As of the time of publication, the company has risen by nearly 7.9% after market hours.
According to the financial report,
In the three months to the end of last year, the company's revenue was 17.38 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%, which basically met market expectations of 17.3 billion US dollars;
The adjusted profit per share was $3.87, better than the analyst's expected $3.76.
According to the proportion of revenue, the company's largest software business generated $7.51 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, a year-on-year increase of about 2%; IBM's infrastructure division (including mainframe business) had a revenue of $4.6 billion in the fourth quarter, better than market expectations of $4.29 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2%; The fourth quarter revenue of the company's consulting business was $5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5%.
Artificial intelligence brings growth momentum
The artificial intelligence business has provided impetus for IBM's revenue growth: its generative artificial intelligence business (including actual sales and bookings of various products) almost doubled continuously in the fourth quarter.
CEO Arvind Krishna mentioned the company's artificial intelligence platform in a statement:
"The demand for artificial intelligence from customers is accelerating, and our watsonx (IBM's latest AI and data platform) and generative artificial intelligence businesses have approximately doubled from the third quarter to the fourth quarter."
He also revealed on the phone after the financial report was released, "Every client I talked to was asking how to improve productivity and manage the technology stack through artificial intelligence."
James Kavanaugh, the CFO of the company, revealed that about one-third of the company's artificial intelligence revenue comes from the software business, while the rest comes from the consulting business. He also added that this quarter, he signed deals related to artificial intelligence with various new clients, including the German software giant SAP SE.
Meanwhile, the growth in the infrastructure sector is driven by various enhancements to the lifecycle of large hosts, such as embedding artificial intelligence into chips used in devices.
The macro environment is still unstable
IBM expects the company's revenue to maintain a moderate single digit (4% -6%) growth rate this year. According to LSEG data, Wall Street expects IBM's growth rate to be around 3%.
Cavano added that IBM continues to operate in a "very unstable and uncertain" economic environment. Competitors such as Accenture and India's Tata Consulting Services have previously stated that discretionary spending is weak due to corporate clients dealing with macroeconomic burdens.
Krishna said, "I expect many macro trends this year to be similar to 2023."
After several tech giants such as Google and Amazon recently announced layoffs, IBM has also joined this wave of layoffs. The company's CFO, Cavano, stated that IBM may spend the same amount on restructuring as last year - the company spent $400 million last year laying off approximately 3900 employees.
However, he stated that the company will continue to recruit certain positions and expects the number of employees to be roughly the same by the end of the year. As of the end of 2023, IBM has approximately 288000 employees worldwide.