International Business Machines Corp forecast full-year earnings above Wall Street estimates and reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, helped by growth in newer areas such as cloud-based services and analytics.

IBM's shares were up 2.9 per cent at US$171.64 in after-hours trading on Thursday.

The Armonk, New York-based company forecast adjusted earnings of at least US$13.80 per share for fiscal 2017, beating the average analyst estimate of US$13.74, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

IBM has shown pockets of revenue growth in recent quarters, with newer businesses such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence driving the company's turnaround efforts.

Revenue from "strategic imperatives", which includes cloud and mobile computing, data analytics, social and security software, rose 11 per cent to US$9.5 billion in the fourth quarter, from a year earlier.

Cloud computing revenue across IBM's segments rose 33 per cent. The business includes services such as SoftLayer, which leases online storage space to companies, as well as the BlueMix cloud platform.

Excluding items, IBM earned US$5.01 per share, beating analysts' average estimate of US$4.88 per share.

IBM's revenue fell 1.3 per cent to US$21.77 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, but beat analysts' expectations of US$21.64 billion.

Net income rose to US$4.50 billion, or US$4.72 per share, from US$4.46 billion, or US$4.59 per share.

IBM's shares rose 30.2 per cent in the last 12 months, outperforming the 23.2 per cent gain in the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average.