Why Dan Ives Maintains His Sky High Target on IBM After Its Largest Crash Ever - 24/7 Wall St.

What the report says

24/7 Wall St. reported that Wedbush analyst Dan Ives is keeping a $350 price target on IBM despite a sharp selloff that the article described as the company’s worst weekly decline since 1968. IBM was cited as trading at $212.67, while the average Wall Street target was $273.75, making Ives’ view far more bullish than consensus. The article said the shares fell more than 26% in a week after IBM preannounced second-quarter results below expectations.

According to the report, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna linked the shortfall to customers shifting technology budgets toward AI servers and memory during a supply shortage, with added pressure from the z17 mainframe launch. The article said Ives is treating the miss as a timing and execution issue rather than evidence that IBM’s enterprise AI opportunity is weakening. Wedbush reportedly planned to wait for IBM’s formal July 22 earnings call before changing its stance.

The 24/7 Wall St. analysis pointed to IBM’s Red Hat, watsonx, mainframe and consulting businesses as central to the bull case. It also cited Q1 IBM Z revenue growth of 51% year over year, a generative AI book of business above $12.5 billion by Q4 2025, and management’s reaffirmed FY2026 targets for more than 5% constant-currency revenue growth and roughly $1 billion of free cash flow improvement.

The report placed IBM’s move in a wider enterprise technology split, noting weakness in Oracle and Accenture while Hewlett Packard Enterprise had rallied on AI networking demand. The next key test, it said, is whether IBM can convince investors that the preannouncement reflects temporary spending shifts rather than a lasting slowdown in consulting, software or cash generation.