RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM’s three consecutive quarters of revenue growth is over, and Big Blue shares fell some 4 percent in after-hours trading after its latest quarterly financial report fell short in revenue as expected by Wall Street analysts.

Wall Street analysts expected revenue of $19.1 billion but IBM (NYSE: IBM) reported $18.76 billion.

Revenue also declined 2 percent year-over-year.

Earnings, however, came in at $3.42 a share, slightly above the $3.40 forecast by analysts polled by Refinitiv and noted by CNBC.

Inside IBM: Stalled services revenue shows tech giant’s work is far from done

Chief Financial Officer Jim Kavanaugh saw bright spots in the quarter, noting that increasing value of the dollar cut in to revenues.

“As compared to last year, our revenue was flat at constant currency though down 2% with the impact of the stronger dollar,” Kavanaugh said in a conference call with analysts about the earnings.

“. Gross profit margin was flat, which is the best year-to-year performance in years. The improvement was led by services margin expansion. We expanded our overall operating pretax margin and we grew operating profit and earnings per share.”

Media reaction overall was negative:

Despite the mix of news, IBM Chair and CEO Ginni Rometty praised the quarter.

“IBM’s progress and momentum this year in the emerging, high-value segments of the IT industry are driven by our innovative technology, deep industry expertise and commitment to trust and security,” she said in a statement.

“Our leadership in the technology and services that deliver hybrid cloud, AI, blockchain, analytics and security has helped drive our overall performance, and is helping our clients unleash the full business value of these innovations.”

Kavanaugh, too, noted several bright spots during the call.

“We continue to see strong client demand in the emerging, high-value segments of the IT industry. And our performance this quarter was driven by the offerings in hybrid cloud, in security, in digital, and in analytics and AI, a testament to our ability to deliver differentiated value to our clients through innovative technologies with the skills and expertise to implement these technologies,” he told analysts, according to a transcript of the call provided by news site SeekingAlpha.

“We see the results in our strategic imperatives revenue growth of 13% over the last 12 months. We also see this playing out in higher operating margin over the last few quarters, which supports both, our long-term investment and return to shareholders. With our success in these higher value areas and our focus on delivering consistent operational performance, we remain on track to our full-year expectations of earnings per share and free cash flow.”

IBM employees several thousand people across North Carolina and operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP.