IBM Beats Big

Updated from Oct. 17

IBM (IBM Quote) shares started Wednesday's session at a new 52-week high after the company easily beat the Street's third-quarter earnings forecast and surpassed revenue estimates.

"We had a great quarter and our results demonstrate the balance and strength of our business model," CFO Mark Loughridge said on a conference call with financial analysts after the bell on Tuesday.

"I thought it was very solid," agreed Sushil Wagle, senior vice president of investments at J. & W. Seligman, which holds IBM shares. "It was a very good quarter, and the stock's reflecting that."

Big Blue's stock was recently up nearly 5% in early Wednesday trading, adding $4.22 to $91.17. Earlier in the session, the shares marked a new intraday 52-week high of $91.45.

For its third quarter, the IT services giant said it earned $2.2 billion, or $1.45 a share, compared to $1.52 billion, or 94 cents a year ago.

Including 32 cents a share for a one-time charge of $525 million for repatriation taxes, the company earned $1.26 a share in the year-ago quarter.

The results plowed past the Thomson First Call consensus forecast: analysts had pegged the company for $1.35 a share for the quarter. Loughridge said that the additional 10 cents should be rolled into analysts' estimates for the full year.

IBM reported $22.62 billion in revenue vs. $21.53 billion in the same period last year, above the analyst revenue target of $22.08 billion.