A decent quarter, a moody market
IBM came out with a Q1 beat after the bell, posting $1.91 in EPS on $15.92 billion of revenue. Both numbers topped estimates, which is usually the kind of thing that earns a polite golf clap from Wall Street — not a premarket faceplant.
The stock still hit the brakes
Despite the beat, shares fell 6.8% to $234.45 in premarket trading. Translation: investors seem to be asking, “Nice quarter, but is this enough to justify the price?” Classic market behavior. Like buying a fancy latte and then acting surprised it wasn’t free.
Management kept the upbeat script
CEO Arvind Krishna said AI is still giving IBM a tailwind, and the company kept its 2026 outlook intact:
- more than 5% constant-currency revenue growth
- about $1 billion more in year-over-year free cash flow
That matters because IBM is trying to sell the market on a simple story: the portfolio is working, AI is helping, and cash keeps rolling in.
Analysts did the usual post-earnings reset
The headline here isn’t just the earnings beat — it’s that analysts used the report as a chance to tweak their models. BMO cut its target to $270 from $290 and kept Market Perform, while Morgan Stanley bumped its target to $225 from $215 and stayed Equal-Weight.
Big picture: IBM is still doing IBM things — stable, cash-generative, and stubbornly expensive enough that even good news can get a shrug.