Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) Stock Price

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) had its price target lowered by Morgan Stanley from $304.00 to $247.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 4.30% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $340.00 price objective on shares of International Business Machines in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of International Business Machines from $312.00 to $317.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Oppenheimer set a $380.00 price objective on shares of International Business Machines and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Argus set a $360.00 price objective on International Business Machines in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded International Business Machines from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $236.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $320.87.

International Business Machines Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of IBM stock traded up $7.50 on Wednesday, hitting $236.82. The stock had a trading volume of 2,628,426 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,847,459. International Business Machines has a twelve month low of $214.50 and a twelve month high of $324.90. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $290.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $284.17. The firm has a market cap of $221.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.17, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67.

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The technology company reported $4.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.33 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $19.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $19.23 billion. International Business Machines had a net margin of 15.69% and a return on equity of 38.15%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.92 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that International Business Machines will post 10.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at International Business Machines

In other International Business Machines news, Director David N. Farr bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $304.00 per share, with a total value of $304,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 9,258 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,814,432. The trade was a 12.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On International Business Machines

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. CVA Family Office LLC lifted its position in International Business Machines by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 2,389 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $708,000 after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of International Business Machines by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 2,507 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $742,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. lifted its holdings in International Business Machines by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. now owns 905 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $264,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. McGowan Group Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in International Business Machines by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. McGowan Group Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,693 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $798,000 after buying an additional 33 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in International Business Machines by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 9,359 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,878,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 58.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key International Business Machines News

Here are the key news stories impacting International Business Machines this week:

• Positive Sentiment: IBM won a Department of War / Defense Commissary Agency contract (ceiling $112M over five years) to modernize electronic shelf labels across commissaries — a near-term revenue and government‑contract credibility boost. PR Newswire: DeCA contract
• Positive Sentiment: Several sell‑side shops and market commentators call IBM’s late‑Feb collapse an overreaction and a buy‑the‑dip opportunity, arguing mainframe economics and enterprise security needs are hard to displace quickly. Proactive Investors: selloff overdone / Wedbush
• Positive Sentiment: IBM continues to push AI into government work — opening a GovTech AI innovation center to help public-sector customers adopt AI securely, supporting recurring revenue opportunities in regulated markets. TipRanks: GovTech center
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS upgraded IBM from “sell” to “neutral” with a modest $236 target — a small vote of confidence but a conservative view versus higher analyst targets. Benzinga: UBS upgrade
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary and price‑target pieces highlight a wide gap between the stock price and Street targets (median/mean targets remain well above the current level), signaling polarized analyst views and potential upside if sentiment stabilizes. 24/7 Wall St.: buy-the-dip analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: IBM released its 2026 X‑Force Threat Index highlighting AI‑accelerated cyber threats — a product/marketing point that underscores IBM’s security positioning but is unlikely to move near‑term numbers materially. PR Newswire: X‑Force report
• Negative Sentiment: Anthropic’s Claude Code announcement — claiming faster COBOL modernization — triggered a sharp market reassessment of IBM’s legacy‑system revenue pool and sparked a multi‑day selloff; that narrative remains the primary immediate downside catalyst. CNBC: Anthropic / Claude Code coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage of the move underscores contagion risk for IT/services peers: IBM suffered its steepest one‑day drop since 2000, wiping billions of market cap and elevating volatility/flow‑driven selling pressure. Yahoo Finance: steepest drop / market impact

International Business Machines Company Profile

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a global technology and consulting company headquartered in Armonk, New York. Founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and renamed IBM in 1924, the company has evolved from early electromechanical machines to a diversified technology provider serving enterprises and governments worldwide. IBM is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IBM.

IBM’s principal businesses encompass cloud computing and software, infrastructure and systems, consulting and technology services, and research and development.