Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 44,345 Shares of International Business Machines Co. (NYSE:IBM)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of International Business Machines Co. (NYSE:IBM) by 12.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 322,027 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 44,345 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in International Business Machines were worth $43,116,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of IBM. Fiduciary Alliance LLC purchased a new stake in shares of International Business Machines during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Live Oak Investment Partners purchased a new stake in shares of International Business Machines during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. GW&K Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of International Business Machines during the first quarter worth about $33,000. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of International Business Machines during the second quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Pacific Center for Financial Services purchased a new stake in shares of International Business Machines during the first quarter worth about $41,000. 56.16% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IBM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of International Business Machines from $188.00 to $179.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of International Business Machines from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of International Business Machines from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of International Business Machines from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 17th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $140.00 price objective on shares of International Business Machines in a report on Monday, November 13th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.09.

International Business Machines Price Performance

Shares of NYSE IBM opened at $152.89 on Friday. International Business Machines Co. has a fifty-two week low of $120.55 and a fifty-two week high of $153.50. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $144.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $138.86. The company has a market capitalization of $139.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.28, a P/E/G ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.11, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.91.

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 25th. The technology company reported $2.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.08. International Business Machines had a net margin of 11.32% and a return on equity of 38.51%. The company had revenue of $14.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.81 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that International Business Machines Co. will post 9.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

International Business Machines Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, December 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.66 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 9th. This represents a $6.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.34%. International Business Machines’s dividend payout ratio is presently 88.06%.

International Business Machines Profile

International Business Machines Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated solutions and services worldwide. The company operates through four business segments: Software, Consulting, Infrastructure, and Financing. The Software segment offers hybrid cloud platform and software solutions; software for business automation, AIOps and management, integration, and application servers; data and artificial intelligence solutions; and security software and services for threat, data, and identity.