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[sludgehound]

How IBM's Earnings Can Look Like a Miss -- Market Talk

2323 GMT [Dow Jones] IBM reported adjusted earnings of $3.84 per share Monday. That's better than the $3.78 that analysts had been expecting, so why was the company's stock down 5% after hours? The company slightly missed its expected revenue number. But according to Sanford Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi , IBM also surprised investors with two new items that hadn't been factored into earnings expectations. The first was a lower-than-expected tax bill; the second, lower-than-expected restructuring costs. Together these unexpected improvements added about 20 cents to IBM's earnings, Mr. Sacconaghi estimated. "If you subtract that out, it was an EPS miss," he said. [[e-mail] @ bobmcmillan]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-20-15 1923ET