The tech company posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings thanks to the growing cloud business, although its revenues continued to decline.
IBM reported non-GAAP earnings of $5.01 and revenues of $21.77 billion for this quarter, well above the expected $4.88 and $21.64 billion. The company's CEO Ginni Rometty attributed the positive performance to the growth of cloud and analytics services that represented almost half of revenues in Q4. IBM's group of cloud and analytics businesses boosted sales by 13% to $32.8 billion while the revenues of cloud services jumped 35% this quarter, reported Forbes.
IBM also raised its full-year earnings guidance for 2017 to non-GAAP earnings per share of $13.80.
"In 2016, our strategic imperatives grew to represent more than 40 percent of our total revenue and we have established ourselves as the industry's leading cognitive solutions and cloud platform company," IBM CEO Rometty said in a statement.
CNBC added that the company's cognitive solutions business posted revenues of $5.3 billion while business services hit revenue of $4.1 billion, which is slightly lower than the estimates. The revenue of technology services and cloud platforms was at $9.3 billion, above the estimated $9.16 billion.
Despite beating most of the estimates, IBM's revenue still fell 1.3% to $21.77 billion in the fourth quarter, marking the 19th consecutive quarter of declining revenues. Net income was also lower than last year, with a result of $11.9 billion as compared to $13.4 billion in 2015, said Tech Times.
IBM's shares dropped more than 2% today, after slightly growing in extended trading.