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Enterprise technology giant selling hybrid-cloud software, AI, consulting, mainframes and quantum computing.
Enterprise technology giant selling hybrid-cloud software, AI, consulting, mainframes and quantum computing.
Earns from software sold as subscriptions and licences, consulting fees for projects and managed services, and mainframe systems bought in long cycles with years of support after. It bought Red Hat in 2019 and spun off its managed infrastructure services business as Kyndryl in 2021 to concentrate on hybrid cloud and AI.
Moat: narrow (switching costs, installed base, brand). Mainframes and legacy enterprise software are deeply embedded, but IBM has lost share in cloud/AI to newer rivals.
Headquarters: Armonk, New York, US · Founded: 1911 · Employees: 286,800
Size IBM (IBM) is a United States Information Technology company (Information Technology Services) with a market value of $232B, the 49th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $245.00 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 6.4%, against +4.2% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 3rd highest of 6 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 6.8% over the last twelve months (peer median +20.2%); the operating margin is 21.0% (peer median 19.4%).
Valuation It trades at 18.8× forward earnings against a peer median of 31.6× (3rd cheapest of 6).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 8% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +4%, so the hurdle is +3 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 4.5 points above its cost of capital (8.0% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $69.0B at 30 Sep 2026, up 8% on a year earlier — 1.0 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit IBM has 58 bonds outstanding ($57.5B), rated A- by the agencies and trading like A- at a weighted spread of 99 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 2.1% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 27 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $69.9B | $67.5B | $62.8B | $61.9B | $60.5B |
| Revenue growth | — | +8% | +1% | +2% | — |
| Gross profit | $40.1B | $38.9B | $35.1B | $33.5B | $31.3B |
| EBITDA | $20.0B | $19.1B | $15.4B | $14.9B | $12.6B |
| Net income | $11.2B | $10.6B | $6.02B | $7.50B | $1.64B |
| Free cash flow | $14.7B | $12.1B | $12.4B | $12.7B | $9.09B |
| Capital expenditure | $1.81B | $1.74B | $1.69B | $1.81B | $1.97B |
| Total debt | $67.1B | $64.6B | $58.4B | $59.9B | $54.0B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBM IBM | $232B | +6% | +7% | 21% | 18.8× | 7.6% |
| Microsoft MSFT | $3.94T | +28% | +18% | 47% | 25.5× | 17.2% |
| Accenture ACN | $154B | +44% | +6% | 15% | 17.8× | 3.7% |
| Oracle ORCL | $351B | -41% | +22% | 34% | 13.6× | n/a |
| Amazon AMZN | $2.80T | -5% | +15% | 13% | 26.3× | n/a |
| Dell Technologies DELL | $209B | +26% | +49% | 10% | 11.6× | 10.1% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | IBM | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +8.1% | -14.1% | 3rd highest of 6 |
| 6-month return | +6.4% | +4.2% | 3rd highest of 6 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -26.3% | -27.4% | 3rd highest of 6 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +6.8% | +20.2% | 2nd lowest of 6 |
| Operating margin | 21.0% | 19.4% | 3rd highest of 6 |
| Forward P/E | 18.8× | 31.6× | 3rd cheapest of 6 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 7.6% | 12.0% | 2nd least demanding of 4 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.1% | +10.2% | lowest of 4 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +3.5 pp | +1.1 pp | most demanding of 4 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +4.5 pp | +7.6 pp | 3rd highest of 5 |
| EV / EBITDA | 14.4× | 12.0× | 2nd most expensive of 4 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.8× | -1.1× | most indebted of 5 |
| Bond spread | 99 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBM IBM | United States | $232B | +6% | +7% | 21% | 18.8× | 7.6% | +4.1% |
| Accenture ACN | United States | $154B | +44% | +6% | 15% | 17.8× | 3.7% | +8.0% |
| Cloudflare NET | United States | $95.7B | +37% | +34% | -8% | 168.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS | India | $95.7B | +4% | +10% | 25% | 16.2× | 12.0% | +10.2% |
| Fortinet FTNT | United States | $87.3B | +4% | +20% | 33% | 31.6× | 22.4% | +21.3% |
| Hygon Information Technology 688041.SS | China | $66.0B | -36% | +59% | 19% | 100.6× | n/a | n/a |
IBM has 58 bonds outstanding with $57.5B face value. The agencies rate it A-; its bonds trade like A-. Weighted yield 5.10%, a spread of 99 bp over government bonds.
IBM reported $69.0B of remaining performance obligations at 30 Sep 2026, up 8% from a year earlier and up 1% from the previous quarter. That is 1.0 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 1.06.