IBM “separating themselves from the pack,” added to Wedbush’s Best Ideas list

If you’ve read any of Dan Ives’ work, you’d know the Wedbush analyst is pretty bullish on the medium-term prospects for AI, deeming it a “once in a generation 4th Industrial Revolution.”

But like any good analyst, he’s got to make calls on which tech companies are going to be big beneficiaries of sea change and which will be taken out by the tide. To that end, he’s named IBM as the newest addition to Wedbush’s Best Ideas List. Shares are up about 1% in early trading.

“While there is a lot of noise in the software world around driving monetization of AI, a handful of software players have started to separate themselves from the pack,” he wrote. “The clear standout over the last month from checks has been the cloud penetration success at IBM which has a massive opportunity to monetize its installed base over the next 12 to 18 months.”

Big Blue is up 11% this year, far outstripping the 3.6% and 8% declines in the S&P 500 and US tech sector, respectively. Shares of the computing giant had their best day since 1999 after reporting surprisingly strong earnings in January, bolstered by big growth in its AI business.

“In a nutshell, investors remain nervous about the AI spending trajectory in this backdrop yet to the contrary we see many enterprises accelerating their strategic paths for 2025 which is bullish for the software ecosystem,” he added.

Earlier this month, Ives also added Tesla to his “Best Ideas” list.