Tuesday, October 17th saw some interesting developments in the stock market. First, the Dow crossed 23,000 for the first time ever. However, the widely followed index closed below that level when the market closed at 4 p.m.

Another thing that happened of interest was that IBM (IBM) reported their third-quarter earnings and they beat on both the top and bottom lines. Revenues came in at just over $19 billion dollars. Net income after certain one-time events came in at $3.30 a share which beat analyst expectations which were $3.28 per share.

The company attributed some of the increased earnings to their focusing a little more on cyber security and cloud computing.  Shares closed the regular trading session at $146.54 which was only down $0.29 on the day. However, after the earnings were released, shares soared up $8.18 which is 5.58% and closed at $154.72.

Company Comments

Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer made these comments after the earnings came out:

“In the third quarter we achieved double-digit growth in our strategic imperatives, extended our enterprise cloud leadership, and expanded our cognitive solutions business. There was enthusiastic adoption of IBM’s new z Systems mainframe, which delivers breakthrough security capabilities to our clients.

Martin Schroeter, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer these comments

“During the first three quarters of the year, our strong free cash flow has enabled us to maintain our R&D investments and to expand IBM’s cloud and cognitive capabilities through capital investments. In addition, we have returned nearly $8 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.”

Analyst Comments

David Holt, an analyst with CFRA had this to say about IBM:

“The progress around the mainframe contribution, signings growth/visibility in consulting and positive trends in cloud likely sets up for further momentum in Q4,”.

Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones  this to say 

“Management is focused in the right areas, but still have some work and must demonstrate this growth is sustainable.