IBM Kicks Off The Big Tech Earnings Season

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is set to kick off the fourth quarter earnings season for large-cap technology firms by reporting its quarterly numbers on Thursday after the market close.

Analyst Joseph Foresi of Cantor Fitzgerald, who has a Neutral rating and price target of $156 on the stock, expects the revenue decline to be minimal in constant currency.

The analyst sees EPS of $4.97, higher than the Street view of $4.89. Foresi projects fourth-quarter revenue of $21.80 billion, versus the FactSet consensus of $21.69 billion. Strategic Imperatives is expected to grow by 12.5 percent in the fourth quarter to account for more than 40 percent of revenues.

“We expect two out of the five major product and services lines to be up low- to mid-single digits y/y and one other segment to be flat for the period. Currency could impact revenues somewhat this quarter due to recent depreciation in the GBP post the Brexit vote,” Foresi wrote in a note.

In addition, Foresi expects IBM to issue a conservative outlook for 2017. The analyst estimates EPS/revenue of $14.17/$79.7 billion versus consensus of $13.75/$78.7 billion.

Meanwhile, investors will be looking for signs around the timing of a return to overall growth, especially organic growth, which is expected in 2018.

Other Earnings Ahead

Following are some of the key earnings dates that tech investors should take note of:

• Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX): January 18.
• SAP SE (ADR) (NYSE: SAP): January 24.
• Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX): January 24.
• eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY): January 25.
• QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM): January 25.
• Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC): January 25.
• Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL): January 26.
• Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): January 26.
• Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC): January 26.
• Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT): January 26.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): January 31.

February

• Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB): February 1.
• Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO): February 15.
• NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA): February 15.
• HP Inc (NYSE: HPQ): February 22.
• salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE: CRM): February 22.
• Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ: BIDU): February 23.

March

• Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE: HPE): March 1.
• Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL): March 13.
• Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE): March 16.
• Accenture Plc (NYSE: ACN): March 22.
• Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU): March 28.