1. IBM and XLK Stock Analysis
By Esha Karlekar, Ashrita Gollapalli, Rhea Kalluri, Shriya Srinivas

2. Explanation of the Stock and Sector
XLK
Explanation of the Stock and Sector
-Sector for technology stocks -Includes Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, AT&T, Intel, and others -Largest weight in the S&P 500
International Business Machines (IBM)
-Technology giant, responsible for inventions like ATM, floppy disk drive, the hard disk drive, SQL programming language
-Was worth around $ per stock, dropped considerably in the past year
-One of the most influential corporations in pushing technology forward
-Accounts for 2.3% of holdings in XLK
-5th largest private employer in U.S.A.

3. Year-Long Analysis - IBM stocks decreased overall in 2017
- - 
- IBM stocks decreased overall in 2017
- IBM reached peak in February/early March
- Increase in February/March probably has to do with the company making more advances in the cloud computing and artificial intelligence
- It spiked in mid to late October, but not to the same level as it was before
- IBM stock in August and September did poorly
- It reached its lowest price of $ in late August

4. Month-Long Analysis -Linear: y = 0.050123x + 151.042 r2 = 0.025731
Quadratic:
y = x2 – x
R2 =
- The IBM stock decreased for almost half the month
- The second half of the month the prices increased
- The prices throughout the whole month were in the $150-$140 range.
- The IBM stock was at its lowest on Nov. 15, at $147.10
- The highest was on Dec. 4 at $156.46
- Regression model shows overall slight increase during the month of November
Regression model:
Linear:
y = x
r^2=
r =
Quadratic:
y = x2 – x
R^2 =

5. Recommendations International Business Machines (IBM)​
-Not a good stock to invest in​
-Stock market is at all time high but IBM is going down
-Competitors in XLK doing better
-Month-long analysis is misleading​
-General direction of graph shows downwards trend​
Recommendations
Technology Sector (XLK)​
-Good sector to invest in, prices are going up
-Prices from start of 2017 could be 1.5 times as much by end of 2018
-New government is helping with tax cuts
-Doing well despite IBM, top few stocks are doing extremely well
-General direction shows upwards trend

6. Comparison of individual Stocks and Sector
XLK Sector
January 2017: 49.53
December 2017: 66.81
Will most likely increase by 2019
Holds the popular stocks of IBM, Apple, Intel and others 
Doing very well, going up at fast rate
Comparison of individual Stocks and Sector
IBM Stock
January 2017:
December 2017:
Will most likely decrease by 2019
Reached the all-time low in August
Going down despite sector going up
Apple Stock (another stock in sector)
January 2017:
December 2017:
Will most likely double by 2019
Reached its peak at the beginning 2018
Reflects what is going on in sector overall

7. Chaparro, Frank. “UBS: Technologies like Blockchain Are IBM's 'Best Hope for Recovery'.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 5 Sept. 2017, blockchain-are-ibms-best-hope-for-recovery
Lam, Bourree. “Trump's Promises to Corporate Leaders: Lower Taxes and Fewer Regulations.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 23 Jan. 2017, tax-cut/514148/.
Research, Zacks Investment. “5 Overlooked Technology ETFs That Are Crushing XLK.” InvestorPlace, 18 Oct. 2017, investorplace.com/2017/10/5-overlooked-technology-etf-crushing- xlk-ggsyn/#.Wk704a2-Jp9.
Staff, Investopedia. “Standard & Poor's 500 Index - S&P 500.” Investopedia, 15 Nov. 2017,
team, The Weblogr. “Technology Index Fund Scholarly Search.” Technology Index Fund | Scholarly Search,
Sources