Some investors neglected IBM stock during the last ten years. However, the stock gradually finds its way to investors’ must watch list due to IBM’s actions to transform its operations and focus its activities on high-growth technology-related markets. The company manages to improve or remove all issues that cause a decade-long decline in company value. If the strategic moves positively affect the revenues and the company’s bottom line, investors will want to own a piece of the company.

Moreover, acquisitions could boost IBM growth because they will enable the company to swiftly capture new market opportunities. Hence, today, IBM stock is on the watch list because of its strong dividend yield, dividend growth, positive forecasts based on business transformation and the early sign of recovery evident from an increase in revenues generated from crucial segments.

IBM Overview

IBM history can be traced back to the late 1800s with the formation of companies that later became known as the predecessors of today’s IBM. The company was born from a merger between three companies, the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company and the Computing Scale Company of America. The merger took place on June 16, 1911, and the newly created company was named the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company or CTR, based in New York City with 1,300 employees.

CTR changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924 under the leadership of Thomas J. Watson Sr., who joined the company in 1914. Charles R. Flint is referred to as the founder of IBM since he was the one who made all the arrangements for the merger to take place in 1911. Today, IBM is headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States, and it has established operations in more than 170 countries with more than 350,000 employees globally.

IBM is classified in the technology sector, and it operates in multiple technology-related industries such as Computer hardware and software, Cloud Computing, Electronic Data Services, Artificial Intelligence, etc. Accordingly, the company engages in computer hardware and software productions and provides infrastructures services and hosting services. Since its incorporation, IBM has offered a vast number of inventions and developments. Its popular inventions are the floppy disk, the Automated teller machine (ATM), hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, and the UPC barcode.

IBM Stock Historical Price

IBM stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and its ticker symbol is IBM. The IBM stock price reached a decade high of $215 in the first quarter of 2013, while it recorded its lowest closing price of nearly $95 in March 2020.

During the last 10 years, IBM stock has experienced a gradual decline in its price induced by negative changes in company performance and changes in a number of fundamental factors. Throughout its decade long downward movement, IBM share price recorded multiple price retracements and occasional significant drops in the trend direction. The IBM stock price history shows that it can go through a retracement or price drops higher than 10% in less than a month.

IBM stock chart additionally shows that it may be inclined toward irregular range movements within a narrow bound. The IBM stock price today is around $138 with a 52-week range from as low as $105.92 up to $152.84. The number of outstanding IBM stocks is 896,320,072, but it should be noted that the company has a history of stock buybacks which changed the number of outstanding shares.

Why Invest in IBM Share? Points to Consider

IBM stock has been on a downhill because of which some investors have avoided this stock. However, the stock possesses certain strengths, like the strong dividend yield, that makes it attractive for investors to hold it. Moreover, it is anticipated that the stock could make a comeback due to IBM activities and changes in strategy.

IBM business model and share price

IBM operations are categorised into five segments: Global Business Services, Global Technology, Cloud and Cognitive Software, Systems and Global Financing. Each segment delivers specific products and services to clients all over the world. For instance, the Global Business Services segment offers Application Management Services, Global Processing Services and Consulting. The Systems segment develops Operating Systems Software and Systems Hardware, whereas the Global Technology Services segment deals with Technology Support Services and Infrastructure and Cloud Services. Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions are offered under the Cloud and Cognitive Services segment.

Accordingly, IBM performs its business activities in line with the B2B and B2C business models. Moreover, the company adapts its business model to seize new opportunities in areas and markets with high growth potential, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, cloud computing, etc. To further enhance its strategic focus on new technologies, IBM plans to spin-off part of its operations with the objective to separate business segments with growth potential from the mature segments. IBM plans to spin-off its managed infrastructure business and create a separate entity that will manage and modernise client-owned infrastructures, a market estimated to be worth around $500 billion.

To accelerate company growth and capture a larger share in the new technologies markets, IBM has completed or is in the process of completion of multiple acquisitions. One of the popular acquisitions made by the company is the Rat Hat acquisition in 2019. This acquisition opens the door for IBM to private and public cloud and open software solutions estimated to be a $1 trillion market. Noteworthy mentioning is that IBM strategy makes acquisition an integral part of the company’s activities which is evident from the history of close to 200 acquisitions. Focusing on high growth opportunities and the acquisitions of companies that could accelerate the company’s growth should positively impact IBM share price.

IBM stock dividend information

IBM Corporation has paid dividends for more than 100 years, and throughout its dividend payment history, it has paid stock dividends and cash dividends. The company has distributed a total of 26 stock dividends, and it made the last stock dividend payment in 1967. For the last couple of decades, IBM has paid a cash dividend quarterly, and its dividend recorded continuous growth during the last 20 years.

IBM stock dividend paid for the third quarter in 2021 was $1.64 per share, while the last quarterly dividend in 2020 was $1.63 per share with an annual dividend pay of $6.51. According to NASDAQ, IBM’s annual dividend yield is 4.79%, while the annual cash dividend for 2021 is $6.56. The IBM stock dividend yield is significantly higher than the sector median dividend yield of 1.31%. Based on the Dividend Discount Model, StockNews estimates that the fair value for IBM stock could be at a level of $478 with a forecasted gain of slightly above 240%

IBM stock forecast and prediction

IBM stock’s continuous decline in the last decade was induced by worsening financial performance and the increased competition. Nevertheless, the company has maintained stability in certain key aspects, such as the dividend payment and the free cash flow. Also, IBM has undergone a business transformation that should substantially improve its fundamentals and provide value for its stockholders. The business transformation and the focus on new technology have shown positive results through quarterly revenue growth in certain segments.

IBM stock forecast by analysts

Stock price forecasts published by CNN Business point toward a possible increase in IBM stock price in the upcoming year. The 14 analysts that provided IBM stock forecast estimated that IBM could reach a high price of $176 while anticipating a possible low price at the level of $115 with a median target set at around $149. IBM stock price today is around $136, and if the estimates come true for the median price target, then the stock will experience an increase of nearly 10%.

The medium-term and long-term forecasts for IBM are more optimistic, and statistical and AI analysis estimate that the stock might climb up to a level of $200 until 2025 while it could reach a price of $300 by 2030.

IBM stock technical indicators

The technical indicators for IBM stock give mixed signals depending on the time frame used in the analysis. Popular indicators are either neutral or signal a sell opportunity when we consider a weekly price chart. On the other hand, analysis on a monthly chart indicates potential buy opportunities when utilising Moving Averages indicators and oscillators such as the MACD.

Some aspects that concern analysts are the debt level, lack of coverage in earnings for the dividend yield and changes in profit margins. However, the company has the potential to overcome these issues through its business transformations and the entrance into the technology market worth billions and even trillions of dollars.

Where Can I Buy IBM Stock?

Before you can buy IBM stock or other financial assets, you need to find a reliable and efficient broker and decide whether you want to have direct ownership in the company or grasp the benefits coming from trading stock related financial assets such as CFDs.

ZFX, trade IBM stock with no commission, deposit or withdrawal fees

ZFX enables traders to buy and sell IBM stock through CFDs with zero commission, a spread of only 0.33 and leverage as high as 1:20 using the MT4 trading platform.

How to Buy IBM Stock Now

Trading IBM stock on ZFX MT4 is a simple and user-friendly process, even for less-experienced traders. The steps to follow before you can trade are:

Register with ZFX
Verify your ZFX account
Make your first deposit
Buy IBM stock

An insight into each step is provided next.

1 – Register with ZFX

The registration process starts when you go to ZFX’s main website and select the blue “Open an account” button located at the upper right side of the screen. Hitting the button will take you to a new window shown next.

Trade Facebook - Step 1

The steps to complete your registration are in the image above, and you start by providing certain information about you and fill in the registration form.

2 – Account verification

After completing the first step, ZFX will want to verify the trader’s identity and bank account. To verify your account, make sure that you have some of the accepted verification documents: passport, national ID, or Driver’s license. You’ll need to scan the page required by ZFX, which is a way to ensure a higher level of security. You can verify your bank account by providing a bank statement, or you can provide a copy of the bank book.

trade Facebook shares with ZFX - Step 4

3 – Make your first deposit

Depositing funds to your account is simple. You first log in to your registered account and select the “Deposit” option from the menu.

trade Facebook stock with ZFX - Step 3

ZFX’s objective to simplify the trading process means that it offers multiple funding methods. Hence, traders can place funds on their accounts with Bank Wire or Credit Cards. Note that, while it is common for some brokers to charge deposit or withdrawal fees, ZFX doesn’t put an additional burden on its clients by charging deposit or withdrawal fees. Nevertheless, keep in mind that your bank or credit card issuer might charge you a fee.

4 – Buy IBM stock

Once you have made a successful deposit, you can buy IBM stock through the popular MT4 platform. To do that, you need to download the suitable ZFX MT4 trading platform for your device. Once you download the MT4 platform, you need to log in with the details sent to your email address. This will open the MT4 platform.

Start by selecting the “accounts” option on the left side and enter your user ID and password in the window that will emerge. Make sure that you have selected the correct server, which is “ZealCapitalMarketSC-Live”.

Next, you double click on IBM stock or the desired trading asset, which will open a graph with IBM stock quote in real-time. To buy or sell the financial asset, you need to set the desired volume, order type. And if you want, ZFX MT4 gives the option for defining a stop loss or take profit levels.

Bottom Line: Should You Buy IBM Stock?

For the past decade, IBM stock was not a promising investment opportunity because of negative changes in some of the crucial fundamental factors and the need for the company to reconsider its business activities and strategy. However, under the new leadership that came in 2020, IBM has made significant steps to transform its operations that put the company stock back on investors’ watch list.

Hence, some of the key aspects that could increase IBM stock value in the forthcoming period are:

Business transformation and focus on markets with high growth potential;
A spin-off that will augment IBM’s success in the cloud market;
Possible increase in revenue growth once the mature business operations are separated from the high growth market operations;
Strong dividend yield, which is above the sector median dividend yield;
Solid free cash flow that enables the company to continue with its dividend payments.

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