Big Blue's revenue gains relative to its peers are likely to remain subpar even as global spending on the IT sector trails global growth, an analyst said Tuesday.
As total spending on the sector hits bottom, "we think that higher growth, riskier stocks could come into favor at the expense of IBM," JP Morgan's Tien-tsin Huang said in a research note.
International Business Machines Corp. IBM is expected to post fourth-quarter results Tuesday after the bell, and Huang said results will show services segment growth of 1 percent; a 1 percent decline in software and a 12 percent decline in systems and technology.
Wall Street expects earnings of $5.41 a share on revenue of $24.77 billion, roughly in line with Huang's estimates.
The company "continues to be challenged" by its legacy businesses, while its transition to cloud, analytics and mobile computing "remains tricky and will need to be watched," Huang said, maintaining a Neutral rating and $173 target.
IBM, down more than 8 percent in the past three months, traded recently at $154.67, off 1.5 percent.
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