A Blue Chip Case of Blues

Will the real IBM please stand up? In recent weeks the struggling computer giant has stunned Wall Street with surprisingly strong first-quarter profits and has watched its stock price soar. Along with those gains, Big Blue has rolled out lines of powerful business computers that the company hopes will help to spearhead its comeback over the long haul; the versatile large and midsize machines can handle anything from banking transactions to running factory floors. "I think the worst is behind IBM," says Richard Zwetchkenbaum, who watches the firm for International Data Corp. John Coyle, a computer analyst for Standard & Poor's,...