International Business Machines Corp. said Monday its profits more than tripled in the fourth quarter, to $1.2 billion from $362 million a year earlier. But concerns about weak personal-computer sales drove down Big Blue’s stock.
The quarterly earnings, equal to $2.06 a share, surpassed the $1.40 to $1.93 analysts expected.
But disappointing sales of personal computers helped send the Armonk, N.Y.-based company’s stock down $1.12, to $74.25, on the New York Stock Exchange.
IBM’s fourth-quarter revenues rose to $19.9 billion, an increase of 6.6 percent from a year earlier.
The strong final quarter boosted IBM’s profit for the year to $3 billion, or $4.92 a share. In 1993 it posted a loss of $96 million, or 25 cents a share, before a special charge of nearly $8 billion for restructuring.
