IBM, Raytheon Technologies to Work on Tech Solutions for Defense Industry

Technology major International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) recently announced that the company has joined hands with Raytheon Technologies, an aerospace and defense company, to develop advanced artificial intelligence, cryptographic and quantum solutions for the aerospace, defense and intelligence industries.

Following the news, shares of the company declined marginally to close at $142.43 on Monday.

Artificial intelligence and quantum technologies are likely to enable the aerospace, intelligence and defense industries to design systems that secure communications networks more efficiently and improve decision-making processes. Further, advanced cryptographic technologies will be developed to address some of the pertinent problems faced by these industries.

The Senior Vice-President of IBM, Dario Gil, said, “Our new collaboration with Raytheon Technologies will be a catalyst in advancing these state-of-the-art technologies – combining their expertise in aerospace, defense and intelligence with IBM’s next-generation technologies to make discovery faster, and the scope of that discovery larger than ever.” (See IBM stock chart on TipRanks)

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Recently, Argus Research analyst Jim Kelleher reiterated a Buy rating on the stock. The analyst, however, raised the price target from $155 to $165, which implies upside potential of 15.9% from current levels.

The Wall Street community is cautiously optimistic about the stock and has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 4 Buys and 6 Holds. The average IBM price target of $158.20 implies that the stock has upside potential of 11.1% from current levels.

IBM scores an 8 out of 10 from TipRanks’ Smart Score rating system, indicating that the stock has strong potential to outperform market expectations. Shares have gained 12% over the past year.