Ahead of Earnings, BlackBerry Ltd Was Upgraded To ‘Buy’

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BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) continues to move forward with its turnaround, with shares closing up 2.98% on Wednesday at $8.29. BGC Financial upgraded their rating from Sell to Buy in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday. Also, the price target has been raised to $15 from $8, which represents an upside potential of 86.34% from the stock’s previous close.

Rating from other analysts

Various analysts have come out with their recommendations on the Canadian firm recently. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) in a research note on Wednesday with a rating of Equal Weight on the stock. On the other hand, Cowan and Company reiterated a Neutral rating on the stock in a research report published on Wednesday. Separately, an analyst at Oppenheimer upgraded their rating from Underperform to Market perform in a research note published on Tuesday, May 6th. Nineteen analysts have given a Hold rating and eleven have a Sell rating on the stock. Three analysts have a Buy rating, whereas one has a Strong Buy rating. Presently, BlackBerry has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $8.70

BlackBerry put a one year low of $5.44 and a one year high of $15.09. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $7.58 and a 200-day moving average of $8.21. The company’s market cap is currently $4.312 billion.

For the first fiscal quarter, the Canadian company posted GAAP earnings of $23 million, or 4 cents a share versus a  loss of $84 million, or 16 cents a share, last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $966 million, which is a decline of 1% from the year ago period. Analysts expected a loss of 28 cents a share on revenues of $1.047 billion..

Opportunities for BlackBerry moving forward

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s new CEO John Chen, who came aboard last November, is working hard to get the company back on solid footing. Chen identified enhanced enterprise mobility management as a hot emerging market the company planned to focus on.

Enterprise Mobility has a huge potential. BlackBerry disclosed BBM Protected, the first component of its present eBBM suite for secure enterprise-class mobile messaging. With this kind of product, BlackBerry will enable access and productivity for mobile workers. Introducing machine-to-machine communication is only possible through robust server and network operating systems, according to Chen.

A three-year deal with EnStream to support cash transactions between banks and customers could also help to improve the stock price.

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