IBM shares close lower on Tuesday, company to buy Waeg, Salesforce’s consulting partner

International Business Machines Corp (IBM) announced on Tuesday that it would acquire Waeg, a consulting partner for Salesforce. The acquisition is expected to extend IBM’s range of services and also to support its hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence strategy.

The deal follows another acquisition by IBM in January – that of 7Summits, a US-based firm specializing in Salesforce’s customer management software.

IBM did not disclose any financial details of the agreement.

IBM shares closed lower for the fifth time in the past ten trading sessions in New York on Tuesday. The stock went down 0.83% ($1.20) to $143.91, after touching an intraday low at $143.24, or a price level not seen since May 13th ($141.45).

Shares of International Business Machines have risen 14.32% so far in 2021 compared with a 9.90% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2020, IBM’s stock went down 6.09%, thus, it underperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 16.26% gain.

“Waeg’s strength in Salesforce consulting services will be key to creating intelligent workflows that allow our clients to keep pace with changing customer and employee needs and expectations,” Mark Foster, senior vice president of IBM Services and Global Business Services, said in a statement, cited by Reuters.

Analyst stock price forecast and recommendation

According to CNN Money, at least 9 out of 17 surveyed investment analysts had rated International Business Machines Corp’s stock as “Hold”, while 5 – as “Buy”. The median price target on the stock stands at $145.00.