Why International Business Machines Corp. Shares Jumped 10% Higher Today

Shares of IBM (NYSE: IBM) soared in Wednesday's morning session, rising 9.7% as of 11:20 a.m., Eastern time. Big Blue reported third-quarter results Tuesday night, exceeding analyst expectations and showing signs that its long-running strategy shift is starting to pay off in the second half of 2017.

IBM's third-quarter results were flat year over year, as adjusted earnings stayed at $3.30 per share and revenues were unmoved at $19.2 billion. Analysts would have settled for earnings of $3.28 per share and sales near $18.6 billion, so Big Blue beat the Street's revenue targets by a wide margin. Full-year guidance targets were reiterated, and CFO Martin Schroeter shared a positive view of IBM's strategic makeover progress:

"Ninety days ago, I talked about planting the flag to mark the beginning of an improvement of the trajectory of our business, which would result in a second half that was improved over the first," Schroeter said. "Now in the third quarter, we've improved our year-to-year revenue and margin trajectory."

Source: Fool.com