{"id":56606,"date":"2026-06-05T06:53:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/56606\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T06:53:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:53:46","slug":"barclays-sets-eye-catching-ibm-stock-price-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/56606\/","title":{"rendered":"Barclays sets eye-catching IBM stock price target"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

International Business Machines (IBM<\/a>) spent the early part of 2026 as one of the market\u2019s least-loved technology names. A new call from Barclays flipped that script in a flash.<\/p>\n

On June 1, the bank started coverage of IBM with an overweight rating and a 12-month price target of $350, and the stock raced to record territory the same day.<\/p>\n

The headline grabber is quantum computing, but the reason Barclays actually likes the stock sits somewhere far less glamorous, inside IBM\u2019s enterprise software division.<\/p>\n

That distinction matters for everyday investors because it changes what you are really buying when you open an IBM position at the current price levels.<\/p>\n

Why Barclays just put a $350 price target on IBM stock <\/p>\n

Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow<\/a> opened coverage with an overweight rating, the firm\u2019s version of a buy, Investing.com<\/a> reported. His $350 target implied roughly 18% upside from the previous Friday\u2019s close.<\/p>\n

IBM\u2019s share price reacted fast, climbing about 9% Monday to fresh all-time highs and capping a near-30% gain in May, IBM\u2019s best month in about 24 years, CNBC<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

More quantum and AI<\/a> stocks:<\/p>\n

Lenschow\u2019s pitch is plain.<\/p>\n

He sees \u201ca stable earnings compounder with a Quantum option,\u201d and he is happy to pay for it, Barchart reported.<\/p>\n

Wedbush\u2019s Daniel Ives<\/a> echoed the upgrade, lifting his target to $350 from $320, BigGo<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Here is the key point: The $350 target rests on IBM\u2019s steady software business, not on quantum computing. Barclays expects the stock to reach $350 even if the quantum bet never pays off.<\/p>\n

Quantum only drives the more optimistic case, where Barclays sees $449, roughly 51% above the prior close.<\/p>\n

\"Barclays Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow started IBM at overweight with a $350 target and a $449 bull case.Bloomberg &sol; Getty Images The software business doing the heavy lifting at IBM <\/p>\n

Software now makes up nearly half of IBM\u2019s revenue and most of its profit, and Barclays expects that share to keep rising.<\/p>\n

These are not flashy consumer apps. IBM sells infrastructure software to banks, insurers, and government agencies, clients who rarely rip systems out once they are wired in.<\/p>\n

That stickiness anchors the thesis, and Lenschow is not the first to spot it.<\/p>\n

Oppenheimer and Evercore analysts flagged the same durable software base earlier this year, Investing.com<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Hybrid cloud, built on Red Hat\u2019s OpenShift, ties it together by letting customers blend private and public systems instead of committing to one vendor.<\/p>\n

What IBM\u2019s first quarter showed <\/p>\n

Adjusted earnings of $1.91 a share, up 19% from a year earlier, according to IBM\u2019s results<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Revenue of $15.92 billion, up 9% and ahead of Wall Street<\/a> estimates.<\/p>\n

Software revenue up 8%, with the full-year software outlook lifted to 10% or better.<\/p>\n

IBM\u2019s quantum option and the Nvidia playbook <\/p>\n

Now, the part that drew the crowd.<\/p>\n

Last week, IBM committed<\/a> more than $10 billion to quantum computing over five years in a regulatory filing, aiming for the first large-scale, fault-tolerant machine by 2029.<\/p>\n

Quantum computers use qubits, which hold multiple states at once, to solve problems that would stall today\u2019s fastest supercomputers for years.<\/p>\n

Related: History of IBM: Company timeline, milestones & facts<\/a><\/p>\n

The centerpiece is Anderon, a quantum chip foundry in Albany, New York, backed by a proposed $1 billion Commerce Department award and a matching $1 billion from IBM, according to IBM’s newsroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Barclays says IBM is copying Nvidia<\/a>\u2019s ecosystem playbook, building software and developer tools to lock in users early. Appetite is hot, with peer Quantinuum\u2019s IPO<\/a> heavily oversubscribed last week.<\/p>\n

However, it is important to note that IBM\u2019s quantum revenue is years away. For now, quantum computing works as a long-term optionality, not a current earnings driver.<\/p>\n

What still has to go right for IBM stock to hit $350 <\/p>\n

The rebound appears solid, but February\u2019s scare still lingers.<\/p>\n

IBM fell more than 20% that month on fears that Anthropic\u2019s Claude Code<\/a> could automate legacy system work and threaten IBM\u2019s mainframe ecosystem and high-margin consulting services.<\/p>\n

Valuation is no longer cheap.<\/p>\n

Barclays values IBM near 21 times projected 2027 unlevered free cash flow<\/a>, leaving little room for stumbles, though broad software optimism is helping the group.<\/p>\n

Four things IBM bulls want to see next <\/p>\n

Software growth holding in the mid-single digits or better, quarter after quarter.<\/p>\n

Margins expanding as the revenue mix tilts further toward software.<\/p>\n

Fundable progress on the 2029 quantum roadmap and the Anderon foundry.<\/p>\n

No fresh AI threat to IBM\u2019s consulting and mainframe base.<\/p>\n

For those who wish to open a stock position, own IBM for its software engine, and treat quantum computing as a free option that could lift the stock toward $449 if the technology delivers.<\/p>\n

Having quantum computing as your main reason for buying means you are betting on the best case, not the safer one.<\/p>\n

Related: CoreWeave CEO sends blunt message to Nvidia stock investors<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by TheStreet<\/a> on Jun 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Investing<\/a> section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International Business Machines (IBM) spent the early part of 2026 as one of the market\u2019s least-loved technology names.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21264],"tags":[3343,27701,26424,27702,15933,4424],"class_list":["post-56606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barclays","tag-barclays","tag-enterprise-software-division","tag-ibm-stock","tag-international-business-machines","tag-quantum-computing","tag-target"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116696187099371966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}