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Updated Saturday, January 21, 2012 0:03 am TWN, AP

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IBM earnings for fourth-quarter beat estimates, revenue falls shy

SAN FRANCISCO--IBM Corp.'s fourth-quarter earnings handily beat Wall Street's expectations on Thursday, helped by higher revenue and profit margins in the technology icon's lucrative software and services segments.

The results and IBM's stronger-than-expected outlook for this year sent IBM's stock up more than 2 percent after hours. The company offered a welcome sign of stability amid the global economic turmoil that's prompting worries about a slowdown in technology spending by businesses and governments, who are IBM's customers.

One sore spot was revenue, which fell short of analyst expectations; the rise in software and services revenue wasn't enough to offset a decline in hardware. Also, the stronger dollar is squeezing overseas revenue.

IBM earned US$5.49 billion, or US$4.62 per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's up 4 percent from US$5.26 billion, or US$4.25 per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings were US$4.71 per share, easily surpassing analysts' expectations of US$4.61 per share.

Revenue grew 2 percent to US$29.49 billion from US$29.02 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected slightly higher revenue of US$29.7 billion.

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