Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has added two ex-telecom industry executives to its board, increasing it from 10 to 12 members. Meanwhile analysts at Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) have upgraded the company’s stock as checks on sales of the new BlackBerry Z10 phones indicate that the new device is selling fairly well.
The two new board members are former Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Executive Vice President Richard Lynch and former Sony Ericsson Mobile CEO Bert Nordberg. The two new additions are the latest in a round of shakeups at the Canadian BlackBerry maker.
Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) issued a report on Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) to investors today. They upgrade the stock to Outperform and increased their valuation range from $11 – $13 per share up to $19 – $20 per share. The analysts said they believe the company’s “gross margin will improve as the mix” of BlackBerry 10 devices goes up and the number of current BlackBerry 7 devices goes down. They noted that in the past, shares of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) have trended along with the company’s gross margin.
The analysts also believe that enterprise service revenue, which accounts for more than half of the company’s service revenue, “will not be impacted materially” until the 2015 fiscal year because of how the BlackBerry Enterprise Service Pack release is planned.
They said even if demand for the BlackBerry 10 devices ends up being “very limited,” they see the current valuation of the stock has discounting “some level of failure.” They call the risk/reward on the company’s BlackBerry 10 product cycle “attractive,” but also say that the company’s stock could continue to show some volatility in the near term.
Shares of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) rose 3 percent in Thursday trading on the NASDAQ.
