IBM Corp.’s earnings rose 13 percent in the first quarter, though not as much as expected, and some of that gain will continue at the expense of employees who will lose their jobs in further downsizing.
The company’s chief financial officer, Mark Loughridge, confirmed the future downsizing in a conference call Tuesday with brokerage analysts.
IBM earned $2.61 per share of stock in the quarter, up 13 percent from the same quarter in 2011.
Executives now expect full-year operating earnings to be “at least $15” per share, which is 15 cents higher than the last such estimate.
Net income, or profit, rose 7 percent to $3.1 billion on revenues of $24.7 billion, which were flat.
IBM shares fell in electronic trading after the close of regular markets, losing about $5 a share after having gained about that much during the day.
“Lack of growth,” explained Robert Djurdjevic, president of Annex Research in Hawaii. “Sure, IBM profit is up. But its first quarter revenues were flat overall, with software being the only major growth segment.”
Analyst consensus was disappointed by the earnings, which fell short of the expected $2.65.
The results were weaker from the Systems & Technology segment, which includes most of the IBMers who work in Dutchess County. That segment brought in $3.7 billion worldwide, down 7 percent. The microelectronics portion was off by 13 percent.
This, Loughridge explained, was expected and due largely to the segment’s extra-high results in the year-ago quarter, making for a tough comparison. Much of that stemmed from new versions of big mainframe computers, for which Poughkeepsie is the primary site.
IBM remains the largest private employer in Dutchess, with a headcount estimated between 7,000 and 8,000, and has been shrinking for several years due to what IBM calls “workforce rebalancing.”
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