IBM keeps more of each sales dollar as profit

International Business Machines, the US technology group that sells software, consulting and infrastructure, reported revenue of USD 17.1bn for Q3 2026. That is 4.7% more than in Q3 2025, or USD 772m in dollars. Net profit grew much faster, from USD 1.7bn to USD 2.2bn. The net margin, which is net profit as a share of revenue, widened to 12.8% from 10.7%. The company therefore kept about 2.1 pp more of each dollar of sales as profit than it did a year earlier.

Profit usually outgrows revenue when a large part of the cost base does not rise with sales, so extra revenue falls to the bottom line. The balance sheet moved the same way. Equity rose by USD 7.6bn to USD 35.5bn, and the equity ratio, the share of assets funded by owners, reached 22.9% from 19.1%. Cash is the one line going the other way: it fell 20.2% to USD 9.2bn. The accounts do not say where it went. A wider margin and a thinner cash balance can both be true at once.