Alfred Zollar, a director at International Business Machines (IBM), recently bought 936 shares. The buy is an initial stake for the director, and came to a total cost of $197,139.
Zollar is the only insider at the company to buy shares over the past two years. This year, there have been two insider sales, both from company Senior Vice Presidents. Going further back, the company CFO sold about 30% of his holdings for over $5.1 million in early 2023.
Overall, IBM insiders own about 0.1% of shares.
The information and technology services company is up 37% over the past year, slightly outperforming the overall market.
Operationally, results have been mixed. Earnings growth has been negative, and revenues grew by only 1.5%.
Even with that lackluster returns, the company’s mainframe business is seeing renewed interest amid the AI boom. That’s allowed IBM to push its profit margins up to 10%, and could see higher margins in future quarters.
Action to take: IBM shares are valued in-line with the stock market at 20 times forward earnings, and are generally trending higher. Investors could build a stake here for more upside, and potentially earn a 3.2% dividend yield.
For traders, the January 2025 $220 calls, last trading for about $2.85, could see mid-to-high double-digit returns, depending on the strength of a year-end rally in shares.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any company mentioned in this article.