IBM earnings

U.S. International Business Machines Corp. IBM (NYSE:IBM)) net income fell 2.7 times to $1.356 billion, or $1.51 per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $3.67 billion, or $4.11 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Earnings excluding non-recurring factors were $2.07 per share compared with $4.79 per share a year earlier, the company said in a press release.

IBM's quarterly revenue decreased 6.5% to $20.37 billion from $21.79 billion, with only four revenue increases in the last 34 quarters.

Experts polled by FactSet, on average, predicted IBM's fourth-quarter adjusted earnings at $1.81 per share on revenue of $20.7 billion.

For all of 2020, IBM's net income fell 41% to $5.59 billion, or $6.23 per share, down from $9.431 billion, or $10.56 per share. The figure includes a one-off charge of $2.04 billion related to organisational activities, the company said. Annual earnings excluding one-off factors were $8.67 per share versus $12.81 per share in 2019.

IBM's full-year revenues fell 4.6 per cent to $73.62 billion.

At the start of 2020, experts polled by FactSet had forecast IBM's annual earnings excluding one-offs at $13.3 per share on revenue of $79.4bn, but the coronavirus pandemic has made adjustments.

In 2020, IBM recorded a drop in revenue in each of its four quarters as its corporate clients cut costs in an effort to save money during the pandemic. The company expects its revenues to increase in 2021.

CEO Krishna Arvind said: "The actions we have taken to focus our business on hybrid cloud services and artificial intelligence will start to pay off and this gives us confidence that we can achieve revenue growth in 2021".

IBM shares fell 7.3% in additional trading on Thursday. Their value has fallen 8% in recent months.