IBM Reports 2020 Second-Quarter Results

Accelerated Cloud Revenue Growth; Gross Margin Expansion; Strong Balance Sheet and Liquidity Position

ARMONK, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–$ibm #ibm–IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced second-quarter 2020 earnings results.

“Our clients see the value of IBM’s hybrid cloud platform, based on open technologies, at a time of unprecedented business disruption,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM chief executive officer. “We are committed to building, with a growing ecosystem of partners, an enduring hybrid cloud platform that will serve as a powerful catalyst for innovation for our clients and the world.”

Highlights for the second quarter include:

• GAAP EPS from continuing operations of $1.52
• Operating (non-GAAP) EPS of $2.18
• Revenue of $18.1 billion, down 5.4 percent (down 1.9 percent adjusting for divested businesses and currency)
  
  — Cloud & Cognitive Software revenue up 3 percent (up 5 percent adjusting for currency)
  
  — Systems revenue up 6 percent
• Total cloud revenue of $6.3 billion, up 30 percent (up 34 percent adjusting for divested businesses and currency)
  
  — Total cloud revenue of $23.5 billion over the last 12 months, up 20 percent (up 23 percent adjusting for divested businesses and currency)
• Red Hat revenue up 17 percent (up 18 percent adjusting for currency), normalized for historical comparability
• GAAP gross profit margin of 48 percent, up 100 basis points; Operating (non-GAAP) gross profit margin of 49 percent up 160 basis points
• Net cash from operating activities of $15.1 billion and free cash flow of $11.5 billion, over the last 12 months

“Our prudent financial management in these turbulent times enabled us to expand our gross profit margin, generate strong free cash flow and improve our liquidity position,” said James Kavanaugh, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer. “We have the financial flexibility to continue to invest in our business and return value to our shareholders through our dividend policy.”

Cash Flow and Balance Sheet

In the second quarter, the company generated net cash from operating activities of $3.6 billion, or $3.0 billion excluding Global Financing receivables. IBM’s free cash flow was $2.3 billion. The company returned $1.5 billion to shareholders in dividends.

IBM ended the second quarter with $14.3 billion of cash on hand which includes marketable securities, up $5.2 billion from year-end 2019. Debt, including Global Financing debt of $21.9 billion, totaled $64.7 billion.

Segment Results for Second Quarter

Segment results reflect growing adoption of IBM’s hybrid cloud platform while clients continue to shift priorities to preserve cash and maintain operational stability.

• Cloud & Cognitive Software (includes Cloud & Data Platforms which includes Red Hat, Cognitive Applications and Transaction Processing Platforms) — revenues of $5.7 billion, up 3 percent (up 5 percent adjusting for currency), with growth in Cloud & Data Platforms, up 29 percent (up 30 percent adjusting for currency) led by Red Hat. Cognitive Applications and Transaction Processing Platforms declined. Cloud revenue more than doubled.
• Global Business Services (includes Consulting, Application Management and Global Process Services) — revenues of $3.9 billion, down 7 percent (down 6 percent adjusting for currency), driven by declines in Application Management and Consulting. Cloud revenue up 12 percent (up 13 percent adjusting for currency). Gross profit margin up 240 basis points.
• Global Technology Services (includes Infrastructure & Cloud Services and Technology Support Services) — revenues of $6.3 billion, down 8 percent (down 5 percent adjusting for currency). Cloud revenue up 18 percent (up 20 percent adjusting for currency).
• Systems (includes Systems Hardware and Operating Systems Software) — revenues of $1.9 billion, up 6 percent, led by IBM Z, up 69 percent (up 68 percent adjusting for currency). Storage Systems revenue up 2 percent (up 3 percent adjusting for currency); Power declined. Cloud revenue up 22 percent. Gross profit margin up 430 basis points.
• Global Financing (includes financing and used equipment sales) — revenues of $265 million, down 25 percent (down 23 percent adjusting for currency), reflecting the wind-down of OEM commercial financing. Gross profit margin up 360 basis points.

Year-To-Date 2020 Results

Consolidated diluted earnings per share was $2.83 compared to $4.58, down 38 percent year to year. Consolidated net income was $2.5 billion, down 38 percent year to year. Revenues for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020 totaled $35.7 billion, a decrease of 4 percent year to year (down 1 percent adjusting for divested businesses and currency) compared with $37.3 billion for the first six months of 2019.

Operating (non-GAAP) diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $4.02 compared with $5.42 per diluted share for the 2019 period, a decrease of 26 percent. Operating (non-GAAP) net income for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was $3.6 billion compared with $4.8 billion in the prior-year period, a decrease of 26 percent.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are based on the company’s current assumptions regarding future business and financial performance. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to, the following: a downturn in economic environment and client spending budgets; the company’s failure to meet growth and productivity objectives; a failure of the company’s innovation initiatives; damage to the company’s reputation; risks from investing in growth opportunities; failure of the company’s intellectual property portfolio to prevent competitive offerings and the failure of the company to obtain necessary licenses; cybersecurity and data privacy considerations; fluctuations in financial results; impact of local legal, economic, political, health and other conditions; adverse effects from environmental matters, tax matters and the company’s pension plans; ineffective internal controls; the company’s use of accounting estimates; impairment of the company’s goodwill or amortizable intangible assets; the company’s ability to attract and retain key employees and its reliance on critical skills; impacts of relationships with critical suppliers; product quality issues; impacts of business with government clients; currency fluctuations and customer financing risks; impact of changes in market liquidity conditions and customer credit risk on receivables; reliance on third party distribution channels and ecosystems; the company’s ability to successfully manage acquisitions, alliances and dispositions, including integration challenges, failure to achieve objectives, the assumption of liabilities, and higher debt levels; legal proceedings and investigatory risks; risk factors related to IBM securities; and other risks, uncertainties and factors discussed in the company’s Form 10‑Qs, Form 10‑K and in the company’s other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or in materials incorporated therein by reference. Any forward-looking statement in this release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by law, the company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Presentation of Information in this Press Release

In an effort to provide investors with additional information regarding the company’s results as determined by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the company has also disclosed in this press release the following non-GAAP information, which management believes provides useful information to investors:

IBM results —

• adjusting for currency (i.e., at constant currency);
• total revenue and cloud revenue adjusting for divested businesses and currency;
• Red Hat revenue normalized for historical comparability;
• presenting operating (non-GAAP) earnings per share amounts and related income statement items;
• adjusting for free cash flow;
• net cash from operating activities, excluding Global Financing receivables.

The rationale for management’s use of these non-GAAP measures is included in Exhibit 99.2 in the Form 8‑K that includes this press release and is being submitted today to the SEC.

Conference Call and Webcast

IBM’s regular quarterly earnings conference call is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. EDT, today. The Webcast may be accessed via a link at https://www.ibm.com/investor/events/ibm-2q-2020-earnings-announcement. Presentation charts will be available shortly before the Webcast.

Financial Results Below (certain amounts may not add due to use of rounded numbers; percentages presented are calculated from the underlying whole-dollar amounts).