Access Financial Services Inc. Sells 1,811 Shares of International Business Machines Co. (NYSE:IBM)

Access Financial Services Inc. lowered its stake in shares of International Business Machines Co. (NYSE:IBM) by 18.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 8,045 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,811 shares during the quarter. Access Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in International Business Machines were worth $1,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in International Business Machines by 98,797.1% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,029,001 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,553,876,000 after buying an additional 11,017,849 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of International Business Machines in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $876,014,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in International Business Machines by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,592,094 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,337,660,000 after buying an additional 3,084,458 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in International Business Machines by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 74,044,855 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,907,942,000 after acquiring an additional 2,483,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 35.3% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,460,023 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $579,892,000 after buying an additional 1,163,790 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.96% of the company’s stock.

International Business Machines Price Performance

International Business Machines stock opened at $190.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.93. International Business Machines Co. has a one year low of $120.55 and a one year high of $199.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $175.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.49, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.70. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $186.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $164.17.

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The technology company reported $3.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $17.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.29 billion. International Business Machines had a return on equity of 39.55% and a net margin of 12.13%. The company’s revenue was up 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that International Business Machines Co. will post 10.07 EPS for the current year.

International Business Machines Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 9th. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $1.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $6.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.48%. International Business Machines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 81.67%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on IBM. Evercore ISI raised International Business Machines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $200.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Evercore upgraded shares of International Business Machines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $200.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of International Business Machines from $179.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on International Business Machines from $165.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of International Business Machines from $144.00 to $183.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $176.85.

International Business Machines Company Profile

International Business Machines Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated solutions and services worldwide. The company operates through Software, Consulting, Infrastructure, and Financing segments. The Software segment offers a hybrid cloud and AI platforms that allows clients to realize their digital and AI transformations across the applications, data, and environments in which they operate.