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IBM beats Q4 estimates, quarterly revenue down 1.3 percent

Big Blue's cloud business was once again the star growth category, with revenue climbing 35 percent to $13.7 billion for full-year 2016.
Written by Natalie Gagliordi, Contributor

IBM wrapped up 2016 with a better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings report Thursday, despite seeing revenue drop for the 19th-consecutive quarter.

The company reported net income of $4.5 billion, or $4.73 a share. Non-GAAP earnings were $5.01 a share on revenue of $21.8 billion, down 1.3 percent annually.

Wall Street was expecting IBM to report fourth quarter non-GAAP earnings of $4.88 a share on revenue of $18.28 billion.

For 2016, IBM reported net income of $13 billion, or $13.59 a share, on revenue of $79.9 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $13.47 a share on revenue of $79.7 billion.

IBM said quarterly revenue from its strategic businesses including cloud and analytics increased 11 percent year over year to $9.5 and now represent 41 percent of its overall revenue. Big Blue's cloud business was once again the star growth category, with revenue climbing 35 percent to $13.7 billion for full-year 2016.

IBM's infrastructure services and cloud platforms saw revenues of $9.3 billion, up 1.7 percent. Sales from cognitive solutions, including software, were up 1.4 percent to $5.3 billion. Systems revenues, including hardware and operating systems software, totaled $2.5 billion.

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In prepared remarks, CEO Ginny Rometty said 2016 was the year IBM established itself as "the industry's leading cognitive solutions and cloud platform company."

"IBM Watson is the world's leading AI platform for business, and emerging solutions such as IBM Blockchain are enabling new levels of trust in transactions of every kind," she said. "More and more clients are choosing the IBM Cloud because of its differentiated capabilities, which are helping to transform industries, such as financial services, airlines, and retail."

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