IBM’s quarterly revenue beats expectations

IBM’s quarterly revenue beat analysts' expectations on the back of revenues earned from high-growth areas such as cloud-based services. The company also maintained its full-year forecast for adjusted earnings of at least $13.50 per share, dispelling any concerns about the impact from Britain's vote to exit the European Union.

Chief Executive Ginni Rometty's push towards cloud-based services, security software and data analytics seems to have paid off with a 12 percent rise in revenue from "strategic imperatives" in the second quarter. Revenues from cloud services alone jumped 30 percent, compared with 34 percent in the preceding quarter.

The company’s forecast had unnerved investors as IBM receives nearly a third of its revenue from Europe, Middle East, and Africa. “They'll find a little relief that the company maintained that, despite some headwinds associated with their high sales exposure to Europe,” said Edward Jones analyst Bill Kreher.

Total revenue if the company dropped 2.8 percent to $20.24 billion for the quarter ended June 30, from a year earlier, hurt by a fall in its traditional hardware businesses. Net income fell to $2.50 billion, or $2.61 per share, from $3.45 billion, or $3.50 per share.

The company's global business services revenue, which includes consulting, fell 2 percent, while its systems unit, which includes systems hardware, dropped 23.2 percent.