One of Thursday’s best-performing stocks was Blackberry (NYSE: BB). The once embattled smartphone developer has since pivoted towards the cybersecurity and software industry, transitioning much better than many critics expected. The company recently reported its quarterly financial results on Thursday, which managed to impress shareholders despite still reporting losses across the board.
Expectations for Blackberry were set fairly low going into this earning report. The company had already been operating at a loss for a while now, and so it was a given that this quarter would be the same. While that is true, the exact figures were significantly better than anticipated, which is what led to a spike in its share price on Thursday.
Total revenue came in at $175 million, which is a 32% dip from last year’s figures. However, that’s handily above what most analysts were expecting. Additionally, net losses came in at $144 million, which is more than double from last year, but again, better than Wall Street’s expectations. Most of this revenue came from its Cybersecurity division, around $120 million to be exact, while around $40 million came from IoT revenue, with the rest being preexisting licensing agreements.
“Revenue for all businesses beat expectations this quarter. The Cyber Security business unit delivered robust sequential billings and revenue growth and the IoT business unit performed well in the face of global chip shortage pressures,” said John Chen, Blackberry’s CEO and President in a statement. “We are already seeing benefits from establishing the two key business units,” he added.
The company also announced it planned to make some management changes. This includes the departure of its long-time chief operating officer, as well as the appointment of a new head president for its cybersecurity unit. Like many companies, Blackberry has been at least somewhat impacted by this ongoing chip shortage. However, Chen said that the company is also recovering from any aftereffects from higher semiconductor costs.
Shares of Blackberry were up over 10.9% in response to the news. Since the start of the year, the rebranded cybersecurity and software company has done exceptionally well. Shares surged from $6.5 in January to over $25 at one point in February. Despite going back down substantially since then, shares are still almost twice where they were when 2021 started. This, coupled with today’s news, made Blackberry one of the most mentioned stocks on social media forums like WallStreetBets on Thursday.
Despite this, most analysts covering Blackberry are still largely bearish than bullish. There are around ten analysts with ratings at the moment. Six of them have some sort of bearish rating, while three are neutral and just one is bullish. It seems as long as Blackberry continues to shed cash, Wall Street won’t be completely happy with the company.
Blackberry Company Profile
BlackBerry, once known for being the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, is now exclusively a software provider with a stated goal of end-to-end secure communication for enterprises. The firm provides endpoint management and protection to enterprises, specializing in regulated industries like government, as well as embedded software to the automotive, medical, and industrial markets. – Warrior Trading News
