IBM revenue beats estimates on cloud, analytics growth

International Business Machines Corp reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by continued growth in the company's cloud and analytics businesses.

Under Chief Executive Ginni Rometty, the company has shifted towards more profitable areas such as cloud services, analytics, and security.

Revenue from those areas, which the company calls "strategic imperatives", rose 16 percent to $8 billion in the third quarter.

Cloud revenue jumped 44 percent, compared with a 30 percent rise in the second quarter.

The company also maintained its full-year adjusted earnings forecast of at least $13.50 per share.

Shares of IBM were marginally lower at $153.50 in after-market trading on Monday.

IBM reported its smallest drop in quarterly revenue in more than four years.

The company's revenue marginally fell to $19.23 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, but beat the average analyst estimate of $19 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income fell to $2.85 billion, or $2.98 per share, from $2.95 billion, or $3.01 per share.

Excluding items, IBM earned $3.29 per share, beating analysts' average estimate of $3.23 per share.

Up to Monday's close, the Dow component's shares had risen nearly 12.5 percent this year, outperforming the 3.8 percent gain in the broader index.

(Reporting by Narottam Medhora and Nayyar Rasheed in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)