Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) and BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) have seen many analysts upgrading their stocks in the past few days. Shares of the Finnish company rose 1.71% yesterday after Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold upgraded the stock from Underperform to Market Perform. He said the Finnish company has immense IP monetization potential after the sale of its device business to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Nokia’s IP revenues to reach €1.4 billion by 2017
On Friday, Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha highlighted the same thing about Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V). Garcha expects the company’s IP revenue to soar from €600 million in 2014 to €1.4 billion by 2017, mainly through renegotiation of existing deals with smartphone vendors. Raymond James said the sale of handset business has improved Nokia’s balance sheet, increased its margins and positioned the company for top-line growth.
Meanwhile, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) skyrocketed about 20% since its Q1 results on June 19. The Canadian company has started showing signs of recovery. Though its revenues continued to decline rapidly, BlackBerry posted a small profit of $23 million. On an adjusted basis, the company lost just $0.11 per share, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.25 per share in losses.
Analysts rush to upgrade BlackBerry after positive Q1 results
As a result, many analysts have rushed to upgrade BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB). GMP analyst Deepak Kaushal upgraded the stock to Hold on Monday. Kaushal said he is impressed by John Chen’s impeccable execution, and the company’s rising margins. GMP raised its price target from $4.80 to $7.81 on Monday. Evercore Partners has also revised its rating on BlackBerry to Equal Weight and raised the PT from $9 to $10. The research firm is optimistic about the Canadian company’s smartphone business. BlackBerry recently signed a deal with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) to bring Android apps to its platform.
On Friday, Raymond James also increased its price target on BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) from $9.50 to $10. Raymond James has a Market Perform rating on the stock. However, about 20% of BlackBerry’s outstanding stock, or 93.4 million shares, are sold short. Based on the average daily volume of 7.5 million, it will take short sellers 12.43 days to cover their positions.
