A total of 136 stocks announced after the market close on July 14 that they anticipate a year-on-year increase in net profit.

IBM closed down over 25%.

On July 14, the three major U.S. stock indices collectively closed higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.02%, the Nasdaq Composite up 0.9%, and the S&P 500 up 0.38%.

IBM shares plummeted 25.21% at the close, marking the stock's largest single-day percentage decline since 1980. As of the latest data, IBM has a total market capitalization exceeding $204 billion.

The sharp decline was primarily due to the company's financial results falling short of expectations. IBM's earnings report showed preliminary second-quarter revenue of $17.2 billion, representing 1% growth, while analysts had estimated $18.86 billion. Software revenue grew by 5%, while infrastructure revenue declined by 7%. Diluted earnings per share were $2.27, down 2% year-over-year; operating (non-GAAP) EPS was $2.93, up 5% year-over-year. IBM stated that it expects infrastructure revenue to decline by a low single-digit percentage for the full year starting from this quarter.

IBM indicated that it failed to "keep pace" with a shift in corporate spending from software to data center infrastructure and forecast second-quarter earnings would be below expectations, the latest clear sign of AI's growing impact on the industry.

Company CEO Arvind Krishna stated in a letter to investors, "In the final weeks of June, we saw clients shift quarterly capital expenditure towards server, storage, and memory purchases to secure supply-constrained infrastructure ahead of anticipated price increases. While we factored some supply chain-related impacts into our expectations, we did not anticipate the magnitude of the capital expenditure resequencing." Arvind Krishna added, "A number of large deals did not close as expected."

136 Stocks Announce Expected Net Profit Growth After Hours.

According to statistics, after the market close on July 14, more than 700 listed companies released their semi-annual earnings forecasts or preliminary results. Based on the lower bound of the net profit figures from preliminary results or forecasts, 73 stocks are expected to turn a profit from a loss, 136 stocks are expected to see year-on-year growth in attributable net profit, and 116 stocks are expected to see a reduced year-on-year loss.

Among the stocks expecting net profit growth, 67 are forecasting a profit increase of over 100%. Tianqi Lithium, Estun Automation, Jihua Group, and Litong Electronics lead in terms of growth rate, with increases of 3276.35%, 2144.74%, 1259.68%, and 1172.53%, respectively.

The earnings forecast for Tianqi Lithium shows an expected attributable net profit of 2.85 billion to 4.25 billion yuan, a substantial year-on-year increase of 3276.35% to 4934.91%, indicating significantly enhanced profitability. Benefiting from multiple favorable factors such as the development of the new energy industry and growth in downstream demand, the average selling prices of the company's main lithium products have increased significantly compared to the same period last year. Additionally, the performance of its associated company, SQM, for the first half of 2026 is expected to show substantial year-on-year growth.

The earnings forecast for Estun Automation shows an expected attributable net profit of 150 million to 180 million yuan, a substantial year-on-year increase of 2144.74% to 2593.68%. Estun Automation stated that the company continues to promote high-quality development by optimizing its product structure, focusing on high value-added products and high-quality orders on one hand, and by implementing cost-reduction and efficiency-improvement measures such as strengthening product price control, optimizing the supply chain and R&D design, and implementing lean manufacturing on the other, leading to a significant year-over-year improvement in the company's comprehensive gross margin.

Based on the lower bound of the forecasted net profit, 16 stocks are expected to report attributable net profit exceeding 100 million yuan for the first half of the year. Deming Li, Ganfeng Lithium, and Haoxiangni are expected to report the highest net profits, at 5.7 billion yuan, 3.65 billion yuan, and 730 million yuan, respectively.

The earnings forecast for Deming Li shows an expected attributable net profit of 5.7 billion to 6.5 billion yuan. The performance growth is mainly attributed to accelerating AI applications driving sustained growth in storage demand. Against the backdrop of tight supply, the industry maintains high prosperity, and storage product prices continue their upward trend. The company, relying on its long-term stable cooperation with mainstream wafer manufacturers, has effectively ensured supply chain stability and production delivery schedules.

Stocks with Doubled Profits Concentrated in Two Major Industries.

Looking at the industry distribution of stocks with net profit growth exceeding 100%, the non-ferrous metals sector has the highest number, with 12 stocks, followed by the electronics sector with 9 stocks. Additionally, the commercial retail and transportation sectors have 6 and 4 stocks, respectively.

In the first half of this year, against the backdrop of strong AI computing infrastructure and sustained robust new energy demand, the non-ferrous metals market generally showed a broad upward trend. Copper prices are at historically high levels, with LME copper accumulating gains of over 40% in the past year. The price of scheelite concentrate once rose to a historical high of 1.05 million yuan per ton, while prices for rare earths and magnesium also increased.

A research report maintains a "buy" rating on the non-ferrous metals sector. It suggests focusing on the copper segment, where supply is constrained in the short to medium term by production disruptions at foreign mines and in the long term by insufficient capital expenditure, while demand is supported by domestic power grid investment and driven by strong AI and new energy trends domestically and internationally. Long-term supply and demand are expected to gradually shift towards a deficit. It also recommends paying attention to the tungsten and rare earth sectors, which have strong strategic value attributes and constrained supply.

Furthermore, the prosperity of the electronics industry has also improved significantly, with high growth in performance evident in segments such as PCBs, consumer electronics, and semiconductors.

A research report believes the electronics industry is currently in a period intertwined with "AI computing demand driving volume and price increases in core segments" and "consumer terminal innovation driving structural upgrades." From the computing power side, the evolution of AI large models has boosted demand for high-end servers and computing infrastructure, driving upgrades in PCB layer count and materials, with the PCB value per GPU seeing a substantial leap. The AI chip and memory sectors have also entered a phase of simultaneous volume and profit growth, with performance undergoing explosive realization.