American fund managers are saying some very uncomplimentary things about IBM Corp: the Wall Street Journal quotes Scott Black, Delphi Management in Boston saying I have no respect for IBM – here’s a company that had about 80% of the world market, but like Napoleon surrounded by Wellington at Waterloo, they let themselves get outflanked; IBM’s done everything wrong; another critic is David Elias, chief investment officer at Elias Asset Management in Buffalo, New York, who says his firm would definitely stay away from IBM – The people in the trenches want to do the job, but they’re not getting the direction or the vision – until John Akers is asked to step down, we don’t think IBM’s going anywhere; others are more positive, pointing to the 5.5% dividend yield at the current price of around $86 and say the shares could hit $125 within a year – still a far cry from the $139 and change that the price hit briefly around this time last year.
