International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), popularly known as IBM, recently announced that it has signed a multi-year agreement with telecommunications service provider Telefónica to implement its cloud-native, 5G core network platform, UNICA Next.
Following the news, shares of the company appreciated 1.6% to close at $136.73 on Thursday.
IBM Global Business Services, Red Hat and Juniper will deploy the cloud-native platform. The platform is expected to offer low latency and high bandwidth by deploying a new open-standard open-networking technology compliant platform that will be used across multiple central, regional and distributed data centers to deliver services in an efficient manner.
“UNICA Next data centers are planned to be deployed starting in October 2021 and its scalable architecture is designed to address European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and other relevant industry standards,” the company said in a statement.
The Managing Director of IBM Global Communications Sector, Steve Canepa, said, “This implementation of Telefónica’s cloud-native, 5G core network platform reflects IBM’s significant investments in AI-powered automation software and the telco prime systems integration expertise required to deploy modern telecommunication networks – core, access, and edge. We are energized by the opportunity to enable Telefónica and all our clients to modernize their networks and enable new revenue-generating services that deliver tremendous value to consumer and enterprise customers.” (See IBM stock chart on TipRanks)
Two months ago, Credit Suisse analyst Matthew Cabral reiterated a Buy rating on the stock. The analyst, however, raised the price target to $167 from $165, which implies upside potential of 22.1% from current levels.
The Wall Street community is cautiously optimistic about the stock and has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 3 Buys and 6 Holds. The average IBM price target of $154.33 implies that the stock has upside potential of 12.9% from current levels. Shares have gained about 15.8% over the past year.
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