International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) has spent the better part of the past decade repositioning itself for the era of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The $2 billion acquisition of SoftLayer in 2013 kick-started the company's cloud business, and the $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat in 2019 was a bet that enterprises would gravitate toward multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments.
IBM has shed plenty of underperforming businesses as well. The company unloaded its semiconductor manufacturing operation and its x86 server operations back in 2014, spun-off its managed infrastructure services business in 2021, dumped its Watson Health business in 2022, and largely gave up on its enterprise blockchain efforts earlier this year. The IBM of today is leaner and more focused than the IBM of a decade ago.
While IBM stock is still stuck in the doldrums, one analyst sees happier days ahead for shareholders. Matthew Swanson of RBC Capital started IBM with an "outperform" rating last week and attached a $188 price target. That's the highest price target among Wall Street analysts.
Source Fool.com