IBM is set to report earnings after the bell Monday.
The tech company already provided preliminary third-quarter results earlier this month when it announced that it would spin off its managed infrastructure unit to double down on cloud software. Investors will be looking for details on how management plans to execute this strategy as well as any guidance.
Even if it delivers, Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, does not expect the stock to outpace the rest of the tech sector.
“I think the underperformance continues,” Wald said Monday on CNBC’s “Trading Nation.” “This stock has been making lower highs for the last seven years dating back to 2013 amid what’s been one of the best tech rallies since the ’90s. That’s a sign of relative weakness, and why we think this stock continues to underperform the tech sector and rise at a lesser pace.”
IBM shares have fallen nearly 7% so far this year, while the XLK tech ETF has risen more than 30%.
Still, gains for the tech sector should provide a tail wind for IBM’s stock, Wald said.
“Rising tide lifts all boats. I think IBM continues to move marginally higher with the market if we get this broader advance as we expect with a key support level at $124. That was the recent low point of IBM. More positive than not above there,” said Wald.
IBM traded above $125 a share on Monday afternoon.
Delano Saporu, founder of New Street Advisors, is in wait-and-see mode. He is looking for evidence the company can deliver on its envisioned transformation.
“The moves that management made, we still need time to see if those strategies can be executed correctly,” Saporu said during the same “Trading Nation” segment. “We’ve seen that top-line growth has still been stalled for a while and the market and investors haven’t really liked what they’ve seen from that standpoint.”
IBM is expected to pull in $3.6 billion in sales in fiscal 2020. That would be an increase from $3.2 billion last year.
“I just think we need to see more execution from what management has done to be able to jump in with significant capital at that time,” said Saporu.
IBM expects to complete its spinoff by the end of 2021. CEO Arvind Krishna said earlier this month that the move would allow the company to “capture new opportunities.” Krishna has been chief executive since April, assuming the role from Ginni Rometty.
