IBM shares drop 26.5% to $211 after revenue miss
IBM's stock just dropped 26.5% in a week, landing at $211 on July 20, the lowest it's been in months.
The slide happened after IBM reported lower-than-expected revenue ($17.2 billion versus the $17.9 billion analysts hoped for) and gave a cautious outlook for the rest of the year.
Most of the trouble came from its software and infrastructure divisions not performing as well as expected.
IBM infrastructure revenue falls 7%
A lot of customers are now spending more on artificial intelligence (AI) hardware (think servers and chips) thanks to ongoing global chip shortages.
This shift hurt IBM's infrastructure division, which saw revenues drop 7% this quarter after growing last year.
CEO Arvind Krishna explained that clients are bracing for hardware price hikes, so they're moving their budgets around and holding off on software upgrades for now.
Still, even with this rough patch, IBM shares are up 144% from their 2020 lows, a reminder that things can bounce back over time.
Final second-quarter results come out next week, so more updates soon!