As the craze of earnings season draws to a close, here’s a look back at some of the most exciting (and some less so) results from Q1. Today, we are looking at it services & consulting stocks, starting with IBM (NYSE:IBM).
Business services providers play a critical role for enterprises, assisting them with everything from new hardware integrations to consulting and marketing. But cutbacks in corporate spending and the threat of new AI products have kept sentiment in check,
and over the past six months, the industry has tumbled by 9%. This drawdown was worse than the S&P 500’s 1.9% decline.
The Defiance Quantum ETF, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks liquid companies in the quantum computing and machine learning industries, has gained 6.3% year-to-date.
The stocks featured in this article are seeing some big returns.
Over the past month, they’ve outpaced the market due to new product launches, positive news, or even a dedicated social media following.
Many small-cap stocks have limited Wall Street coverage, giving savvy investors the chance to act before everyone else catches on.
But the flip side is that these businesses have increased downside risk because they lack the scale and staying power of their larger competitors.
Business services providers thrive by solving complex operational challenges for their clients, allowing them to focus on their secret sauce. Still, investors are uneasy as firms face challenges from AI-driven disruptors and tightening corporate budgets.
These doubts have caused the industry to lag recently as services stocks have collectively shed 3.5% over the past six months. This drop was discouraging since the S&P 500 held steady.
