In his report Friday, Credit Suisse First Boston's Kevin McCarthy said that while IBM's profit has surpassed many of its competitors, it won't "emerged unscathed" from a global decline in demand for information-technology services. McCarthy has a "hold" on the stock.
Top-ranked analyst Donald Young of UBS Warburg left his rating at "strong buy" and Goldman, Sachs & Co's Laura Conigliaro kept her "recommend list" rating on the stock.
Merrill Lynch's Thomas Kraemer reiterated his "near-term neutral" recommendation and Lehman Brothers' George Elling maintained his "strong buy" rating.
Neff soured on other PC makers in September after Apple Computer Inc said fourth-quarter profit would be below forecasts.
He lowered his recommendations on Apple, Dell Computer Corp and Gateway Inc to "neutral" from "buy," saying sales growth was slowing throughout the industry. He didn't adjust his rating on IBM at the time.
"One of the reasons we had downgraded PCs in September is our goal is to try to anticipate things," Neff said.
"I don't want to wait for a conference call with IBM where they give you new guidance or talk about a challenging environment. I prefer to get in front of that."
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