IBM
The main event: tonight's IBM check-in
IBM is slated to drop first-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, April 22, and Wall Street is showing up with its little notebooks open. Analysts are looking for $1.81 in earnings per share on $15.64 billion in revenue, which would be a tidy step up from $1.60 a share and $14.54 billion a year ago.
Why investors care
This isn’t just another quarterly copy-paste job. IBM has beaten revenue estimates in five straight quarters and in eight of the last 10 overall, so the bar is less “survive the call” and more “don’t trip over your own feet.” If the company keeps the streak alive, that could help support a stock that already closed Tuesday up 0.8% at $255.68.
The analyst merry-go-round
Ahead of the print, the usual Wall Street carousel kept spinning:
- Jefferies cut its price target to $320 but kept a Buy rating
- Wedbush stayed Outperform with a $340 target
- Stifel trimmed its target to $290 and kept Buy
- BMO and JPMorgan kept more cautious stances while chopping their targets
So yes, the crowd still likes IBM — just not enough to stop sanding down their number pads.
Big picture
If IBM delivers another clean quarter, the stock gets another reason to keep its AI-and-software story humming. If not, investors may start asking whether the company’s “steady compounder” vibe is becoming a little too dependent on perfect execution.