IBM (IBM) is one of the oldest publicly traded technology corporations. The company was founded in 1911 and has grown to a value of $160 billion. The company has not reduced its dividend payments since 1993; a streak of 21 consecutive years of dividend payments without a reduction. IBM's impressive dividend streak makes it a member of the exclusive Dividend Achievers Index. The Dividend Achievers Index is made up of 238 stocks with 10 or more consecutive years of dividend increases.
IBM's long history makes it a suitable candidate for long-term investors'portfolio. Warren Buffett has made it his third largest investment position, responsible for over 12% of his total portfolio. IBM stock looks cheap at this time (more on that later) with its P/E ratio of just 10.1 and its dividend yield of 2.7%. Learn more about one of the oldest technology giants below.
Business Overview
IBM is a large multi-national corporation. The company divides its operations into 5 primary segments. The table below breaks IBM's operations down by segment (data comes from first 9 months of IBM's fiscal 2014).
Source: Data from IBM's Q3 2014 Report
IBM's two largest segments based on pre-tax income are global technology and software. Together, these two segments have accounted for 76% of the company's pre-tax income over the first 9 months of fiscal 2014.
The Global Technology Service segment provides IT infrastructure and business process services. The segment is further broken down into 5 divisions based on service provided:
