55,200 Shares in International Business Machines Co. (NYSE:IBM) Bought by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in International Business Machines Co. (NYSE:IBM) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 55,200 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,028,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in International Business Machines by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 82,076,195 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,515,290,000 after purchasing an additional 365,388 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in International Business Machines by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,592,094 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,337,660,000 after acquiring an additional 3,084,458 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in International Business Machines by 7.3% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,297,545 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,119,007,000 after acquiring an additional 1,105,170 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $1,553,876,000 after acquiring an additional 11,017,849 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in International Business Machines by 4.2% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 9,970,674 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,398,886,000 after acquiring an additional 404,948 shares during the period. 58.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on IBM. StockNews.com cut shares of International Business Machines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of International Business Machines in a report on Friday, January 5th. They set a “hold” rating and a $180.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of International Business Machines from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $165.00 to $200.00 in a report on Friday, January 19th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective 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. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of International Business Machines from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, International Business Machines presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $176.85.

International Business Machines Price Performance

NYSE:IBM traded down $3.63 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $182.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,547,378 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,623,920. International Business Machines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $120.55 and a fifty-two week high of $199.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22. The company has a market capitalization of $167.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $188.66 and a 200-day moving average of $167.51.

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

International Business Machines Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $1.66 per share. This represents a $6.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. International Business Machines’s payout ratio is 81.67%.

About International Business Machines

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.