IBM First-Quarter Profit Hits $392 Million : Computers: The company says revenue was up throughout the world. Apple’s second-quarter profit drops by 84%.

International Business Machines Corp. reported a surprisingly robust $392-million first-quarter profit Thursday, but it warned that its turnaround from massive losses of recent years is not complete.

The world’s largest computer company said revenue, which rose 2% to $13.4 billion, grew in all major regions of the world and expenses declined significantly.

“However, the results from one quarter do not guarantee sustained, long-term success,� said Louis Gerstner, IBM’s chairman and chief executive.

The results mark a dramatic turnaround from the first quarter of 1993, when the company lost $399 million, or 70 cents a share, on revenue of $13.1 billion.

IBM’s first-quarter results in 1994, which amounted to earnings of 64 cents per share, included an after-tax gain of $248 million from the sale of its Federal Systems Co. and an after-tax write-down of $192 million related to a change in software amortization periods.

Without any special items, its earnings from operations would have been a more modest $336 million, or 54 cents a share. But that was still far better than industry analysts’ estimates, which ranged from a loss of 7 cents a share to a profit of 19 cents a share.

The news lifted IBM’s stock $6.125 to $58.375, a 12% gain, on the New York Stock Exchange.