Wedbush resets IBM stock price target on AI momentum

A fewer months ago, International Business Machines (IBM) looked similar collateral harm successful the artificial quality boom.

Investors disquieted that the precise exertion powering the AI rally could softly spot distant astatine the businesses that person funded Big Blue for decades.

That interest has faded fast, and 1 of Wall Street’s loudest tech voices present says the betterment has further to run.

The existent question is whether the catalysts down that telephone tin really clasp up.

Wedbush lifts its IBM banal terms people to $350

Wedbush raised its terms people connected IBM to $350 from $320 connected June 2 and kept its Outperform rating, Seeking Alpha reported, pointing to what it called “incremental positives” from AI.

The caller fig sits astir 15% supra wherever shares traded that week, Barchart noted, and expert Dan Ives framed IBM’s blend of software, consulting, and infrastructure arsenic a self-reinforcing “business flywheel.”

Ives has spent the twelvemonth arguing that the endeavor AI buildout is inactive early, a lawsuit helium repeated successful an interrogation with TheStreet.

IBM shares climbed to a grounds adjacent successful aboriginal June earlier a wide marketplace pullback.picture confederation / Getty Images

The AI scare that knocked down IBM banal

Rewind to precocious February. IBM shares fell 13% successful a azygous league aft Anthropic said its Claude exemplary could assistance modernize aged COBOL code.

COBOL is the decades-old programming connection inactive moving galore banks and authorities systems.

The fearfulness was simple. If AI could rewrite that codification cheaply, IBM’s mainframe and consulting enactment mightiness shrink.

Related: Barclays sets eye-catching IBM banal terms target

Wedbush pushed back, arguing AI would velocity up modernization projects alternatively than regenerate them, and those fears person mostly dissipated. The steadfast present calls the occurrence the “AI Ghost Trade.”

The numbers gave the bulls cover. In the archetypal 4th of 2026, gross roseate 9% to $15.9 billion, and net climbed 19%, according to IBM’s quarterly results.

Software present anchors the exemplary aft years of CEO Arvind Krishna steering IBM toward AI.

Inside IBM’s AI engine: watsonx, Confluent, and existent savings

Ives’s assurance rests connected what IBM has built, not slideware. The halfway is watsonx.data, a strategy that pulls a company’s scattered accusation into 1 spot truthful AI tin usage it.

IBM says connecting AI agents to that information is 40% much close than modular methods, according to IBM.

The institution has reinforced that level done acquisitions, including a astir $11 cardinal woody to bargain data-streaming steadfast Confluent, Yahoo Finance reported.

Signals Wedbush is tracking:

• IBM’s generative AI book reached astir $4 cardinal successful yearly recurring revenue, with 80% of caller backlog coming from clients it had not served before, Benzinga reported.

• IBM’s Agent Catalog now offers much than 200 prebuilt AI agents, Barchart noted, truthful clients bash not person to physique from scratch.

• IBM says it has banked $4.5 billion successful interior productivity savings since 2023 and is targeting $1 cardinal much this year.

Where IBM banal goes next: quantum, risks, and however it stacks up

IBM is besides leaning hard into quantum computing, wherever machines could yet lick problems regular computers cannot.

More AI Stocks:

• Wedbush resets Oracle banal terms people for the remainder of 2026

• White House makes bold $2 cardinal stake connected quantum stocks

• 5-star expert resets Google banal terms people connected cardinal move

The institution is investing much than $10 cardinal implicit 5 years, TipRanks reported, and is gathering a quantum spot works called Anderon with the U.S. Commerce Department, with each broadside committing $1 billion. That quality lifted the banal 8%.

Ives sees IBM successful the aboriginal innings of pairing AI with quantum, and absorption inactive aims to present its archetypal large-scale fault-tolerant quantum instrumentality by 2029.

How IBM stacks up, and what could inactive spell incorrect

For each the momentum, IBM has trailed the marketplace it is expected to beryllium leading. The banal is up astir 5% successful 2026, portion the S&P 500 has gained astir 11% done May, according to U.S. News.

It touched grounds highs successful aboriginal June, past fell astir 6% connected June 3 arsenic higher lipid prices and rising Treasury yields squeezed firm tech, StockStory reported.

What inactive has to spell close for the bull case:

• Consulting maturation needs to reaccelerate aft rising conscionable 4% past quarter, acold down bundle and infrastructure.

• The generative AI publication has to support compounding arsenic pilots crook into large, paid deployments.

• IBM indispensable beryllium the COBOL fearfulness was overblown, not simply delayed, a hazard 24/7 Wall St. inactive flags if its AI publication oregon mainframe request stalls.

• Quantum milestones person to land adjacent to schedule, not slip.

The bottommost enactment for IBM investors

Wedbush’s $350 people is simply a stake that IBM’s AI and quantum propulsion is earning existent revenue, not conscionable headlines, and the aboriginal numbers backmost that up.

Still, the banal trades adjacent grounds highs astatine a premium price, truthful the borderline for disappointment is thin.

Buying present means paying up for execution that has to support showing up, 4th aft quarter.

Related: IBM CEO sends beardown connection connected quantum computing

This communicative was primitively published by TheStreet connected Jun 5, 2026, wherever it archetypal appeared successful the Investing section. Add TheStreet arsenic a Preferred Source by clicking here.