Jefferies Maintains "Hold" Rating on IBM (NYSE:IBM) with Increased Price Target

• Jefferies has raised the price target for IBM (NYSE:IBM) from $200 to $245, maintaining a "Hold" rating.
• IBM's Granite 3.0 models, designed for business applications, are now available for commercial use, enhancing IBM's AI offerings.
• The Granite Time Series model, part of the Granite 3.0 lineup, excels in zero and few-shot forecasting, outperforming larger models.

On October 21, 2024, Jefferies maintained its "Hold" rating for IBM (NYSE:IBM), while raising the price target from $200 to $245, as highlighted by TheFly. At the time, IBM's stock was priced at $232.20. This decision comes amid IBM's strategic advancements in artificial intelligence, particularly with the release of its Granite 3.0 models.

IBM's Granite 3.0 models are designed for business applications and are open-source, unlike competitors such as Microsoft, which charge for access. IBM offers a paid service called Watsonx to help businesses run these models in data centers. Some Granite models are now available for commercial use on the Watsonx platform, enhancing IBM's AI offerings.

The Granite models, developed using Nvidia's H100 graphics processor units, are accessible through Nvidia's software tools. This allows businesses to integrate AI models more effectively. IBM's director of research, Dario Gil, emphasizes the models' performance, often surpassing or matching similarly sized models in academic and enterprise benchmarks.

A notable feature of the Granite 3.0 lineup is the Granite Time Series model, which excels in zero and few-shot forecasting. It outperforms models ten times larger, showcasing IBM's innovation in AI. Additionally, Granite will be the default model for Consulting Advantage, IBM's AI-powered delivery platform, used by 160,000 consultants.

IBM's stock, currently priced at $232.20, has seen a slight decrease of 0.29%, with a change of $0.68. The stock's trading range today is between $230.17 and $232.65. Over the past year, IBM's stock has reached a high of $237.37 and a low of $135.87, with a market capitalization of approximately $213.89 billion and a trading volume of 2,838,912 shares.