Shares in Research In Motion Ltd(NASDAQ:BBRY) rose more than 7 percent on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised the rating on the stock to Buy citing an increase in profit margins due to the sales of the new Blackberry 10 phones.
MS analyst Ehud Gelblum said that as existing users upgrade to newer phones, it should “meaningfully” drive up profitability and the average selling price for a BlackBerry, two key benchmarks for the company.
He estimates that gross margin — the percentage of sales left after production costs — reached 33 percent in February, up from 31.6 percent in November.
Gelblum has raised the rating on the stock to Overweight from Underweight and the price target to 422 from $10 a share earlier.
Blackberry had released its new operating system in January which was followed by the launch of its first smartphone, the touchscreen Z10 in more than 20 countries. It will make its but in the US on Friday.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc.(NYSE:WSM) reported a 9 percent jump in its fourth quarter net income beating market expectations.
The company earned $133.7 million, or $1.34 per share, for the quarter ended Feb. 3. That is compared to net income of $122.6 million, or $1.17 per share, the prior year. Its total revenue increased nearly 11 percent to $1.41 billion from $1.27 billion with gains in sales made in stores, online and from its catalogues.
Analysts expected the company to earn $1.29 per share on revenue of $1.4 billion for the period.
The company said that it is increasing its quarterly cash dividend by 41 percent to 31 cents per share. The dividend is payable May 24 to shareholders of record April 26. It also plans to buy back up to $750 million of its stock over the next three years under a share repurchase program.
It expects to earn $2.65 to $2.75 per share for the year on revenue between $4.20 billion and $4.28 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to earn $2.82 per share on revenue of $4.23 billion.
Shares of the company soared 10.50% to $49.92.
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the question is who bought a half a billion dollars of hansets from Blackberry, and why the big secret? this is whats got me shying away from their stock. how can amalysts comment when sale was not verified pertaining to who bought.
You have hated BB (RIM) since talk of their most recent release. Stop reading and commented on every news article/update released already!
sorry to say scott im a very careful stock investor, when someone or some company claims a sale of a that magnitude but does not back it up with proof of the buyer. sorry to say i dont buy that. and by the way i dont hate Rim, i dont hate anyone. but when a company states they have reinvented, redesigned, a smartphone when they did not i have something to say. sorry but i cant lie. the truth of the matter is if they would have reinvented the smart phone it would have showed by now. i went to the orlando presentation and sorry i saw nothing new that their rival already had going. if i was the CMO of Rim and i did not like a product i would not sell it, sorry but its the truth.
There was likely a strategic benefit to the purchaser, such as a lower cost per phone. Why would they want the competition to know that?
well put it this way Pete and Jhoonny, if thats the case, as acting CEO of a company i would have waited claiming that kind of a sale until i was permitted to reveal the buyer. if anything by making such a statement,i feel Rim has done more harm then good to the credibility of their company, in my books. when Rim first started in the bus, i liked blackberry, but im sorry they have ran out of innovation,this has nothing to do with hate, its just the truth in my opinion. I dont hear Tim Cook (apple ceo) slamming Rim. And no im not a Apple fan or android driven device fan either,. if anything i would like to work with Rim to get them back on the right track. but they seem so narrow minded and focused on doing the wrong thing,sorry to say but its the truth.
Likely just a confidentiality agreement on the buyers side so their competitors don’t know they have so many of the new devices. as soon as the earnings are released, the long’s will be swimming in money
bbry goes up a $1.00 a day like I said if you hate blackberry your a short seller or a fool in a new kind of phone not a toy. jin
jin, i dont hate Blackberry whatsoever, sorry i’m not going to lie,and say their products don’t resemble what has already flooded the market place. and sorry but their Q10 resembles the handsets that got them in trouble in the first place, its true.
Hi Dave, I’bet that tonight you will sleep better by the way before you go to bed have a zzzzzz10 !.?.!?
dave is a short. who else would have the time to make sour juice out of lemonade. I am a long now as I bought a Z10 on my sixteen yr old nephews recommendation (its amazing btw)
I bought Blackberry stock because the reviews of the phone were good. There are some things that BB10 doesn’t have that other phones do. There are some things that BB10 has that other phones will catch up on in their next versions. All that’s a wash. BB10 is good enough to carve out more market share in a growing market. Their stock price is depressed because they had a void in coming out with the latest thing that could keep up with the competition. Now they are there. I’m betting about 30% of my portfolio on it.