IBM First Quarter 2011 Earnings Debrief

IBM’s earnings for first quarter 2011 just came across the wire.

Here’s the topline:

• Diluted EPS: GAAP: $2.31, up 17 percent; Operating (non-GAAP): $2.41, up 21 percent
• Revenue: $24.6 billion, up 8 percent, up 5 percent adjusting for currency
• Net income: GAAP: $2.9 billion, up 10 percent; Operating (non-GAAP): $3.0 billion, up 13 percent
• Pre-tax income: GAAP: $3.8 billion, up 9 percent; Operating (non-GAAP): $4.0 billion, up 12 percent
• Gross profit margin: GAAP: 44.1 percent, up 0.5 points
• Operating (non-GAAP): 44.5 percent, up 0.8 points
• Software revenue excluding divested PLM operations up 10 percent, 8 percent adjusting for currency; 6 percent including PLM, 4 percent adjusting for currency
• Systems and Technology revenue up 19 percent, 16 percent adjusting for currency
• System z mainframe revenue up 41 percent; MIPS up 34 percent
• Services revenue up 6 percent, 3 percent adjusting for currency
• Services backlog of $142 billion, up $8 billion
• Growth markets revenue up 18 percent, 12 percent adjusting for currency
• Business analytics revenue up 20 percent
• Smarter Planet revenue up 20 percent
• Cloud revenue 5 times first-quarter 2010 revenue

IBM announced first-quarter 2011 diluted earnings of $2.31 per share, compared with diluted earnings of $1.97 per share in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 17 percent.  Operating (non-GAAP) diluted earnings were $2.41 per share, compared with operating diluted earnings of $2.00 per share in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 21 percent.

First-quarter net income was $2.9 billion compared with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 10 percent.  Operating (non-GAAP) net income was $3.0 billion compared with $2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 13 percent.

Total revenues for the first quarter of 2011 of $24.6 billion increased 8 percent (5 percent, adjusting for currency) from the first quarter of 2010.

“We delivered a strong first quarter with revenue growth across hardware, software and services and with more than 40 countries growing in double digits.  We continued to see excellent momentum in our growth initiatives – smarter planet, cloud, business analytics, and growth markets – which bring together the full value of the IBM  portfolio,” said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer.  “We achieved broad-based margin improvement, while our cash flow and strong financial position enabled us to continue to return value to our shareholders.

“On the strength of this performance, we are raising our full-year 2011 operating earnings per share expectations to at least $13.15.”