International Business Machines Corporation · IBM · FY2025 Q3 · Calendar Q4 2025

IBM raises guidance as AI and hybrid cloud drive growth

The supplied analysis supports a constructive but conditional thesis: IBM's AI, hybrid-cloud, automation, and mainframe momentum is translating into faster growth and higher guidance, but sustainability depends on converting the AI book into revenue, integrating acquisitions, and offsetting weakness in Transaction Processing.

Reported After market closeNYSETechnology $207.90B market cap
100quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $2.65 Consensus $2.45
EPS surprise +8.2% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $16.33B Consensus $16.09B
Revenue surprise +1.5% Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

event-close to next-session close
Stock move -0.9% Event window
SPY move +0.6% Same window
Abnormal move -1.5% Stock minus SPY
Volume 3.1× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift +1.9% Up to 20 sessions
IBMSPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Compared with the prior-quarter analysis, the supplied current analysis describes faster 7% year-over-year revenue growth, a higher $14 billion free-cash-flow target, a $9.5 billion AI book, and continued infrastructure momentum. It also adds greater emphasis on AI partnerships, quantum initiatives, and the need to convert booked AI demand into realized revenue.

Guidance delta

Raised: full-year revenue growth guidance remains above 5%, and free-cash-flow guidance increased to $14 billion.

Key takeaways

  • Q3 revenue accelerated 7% year over year, with sequential growth across all segments.
  • AI and hybrid cloud remain the central growth engines; automation grew 22% and the AI book reached $9.5 billion.
  • Infrastructure growth was supported by z17 mainframe and AI inferencing momentum, while Transaction Processing remained down.

Management priorities

  • Expand Watson X, Granite AI models, and new AI services.
  • Complete HashiCorp integration and extend Terraform automation offerings.
  • Advance z17 AI inferencing, quantum initiatives, and AI consulting engagements.

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Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
IBM EPS earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 9 reported fiscal quarters and 4 future estimate-only quarters. Q1 '24 estimate $1.60 Q1 '24 actual $1.68, beat Q2 '24 estimate $2.20 Q2 '24 actual $2.43, beat Q3 '24 estimate $2.22 Q3 '24 actual $2.30, beat Q2 '25 estimate $2.65 Q2 '25 actual $2.80, beat Q3 '25 estimate $2.45 Q3 '25 actual $2.65, beat Q4 '25 estimate $4.31 Q4 '25 actual $4.52, beat Q1 '26 estimate $1.81 Q1 '26 actual $1.91, beat Q2 '26 estimate $2.93 Q2 '26 actual $2.93, match Q3 '26 estimate $2.86 Q4 '26 estimate $4.62 Q1 '27 estimate $2.17 Q2 '27 estimate $3.12
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Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusHold51 ratings
Bullish2447.1%
Neutral2243.1%
Bearish59.8%

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$219.99Current
$112Low
$241.24Average
$380High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted current price from FN2's market snapshot as of Sep 29, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
Susquehanna Neutral NeutralMaintainAug 31, 2026
Citigroup Buy BuyMaintainJul 24, 2026
RBC Capital Outperform OutperformMaintainJul 23, 2026
Morgan Stanley Equal Weight Equal WeightMaintainJul 23, 2026
BMO Capital Market Perform Market PerformMaintainJul 23, 2026
Show 46 more rating actions

Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted current price $219.99. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
SusquehannaJames Friedman$235$233.51 +6.8%Aug 31, 2026
SusquehannaJames Friedman$225$211.99 +2.3%Jul 24, 2026
BMO CapitalAnalyst unavailable$230$203.62 +4.6%Jul 23, 2026
Goldman SachsAnalyst unavailable$270$205.77 +22.7%Jul 23, 2026
Morgan StanleyAnalyst unavailable$190$205.77 -13.6%Jul 23, 2026
See 94 more

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Company context

Snapshot as of publication

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) delivers comprehensive technology solutions and services across the globe. The company's operations are structured into four primary segments: Software, Consulting, Infrastructure, and Financing. The Software division provides hybrid cloud platforms and a range of software offerings, including Red Hat's enterprise open-source solutions. It also develops software for business automation, AIOps and management, integration, and application servers, in addition to data and artificial intelligence tools. This segment further supplies security software and services for threat, data, and identity management, and offers critical transaction processing software that supports essential on-premise workloads for industries such as banking, airlines, and retail.…

Historical context

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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-05-11T10:29:34.698584+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-07-26T00:37:12.209961+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-09-29T19:41:02.250558+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-09-29T19:41:02.247803+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated · As of 2026-09-29. For educational purposes only; not investment advice.