The number of investors who are betting against BlackBerry (TSX:BB, Nasdaq:BBRY) is falling.
As of the end of January, short interest on BlackBerry fell below 100-million shares for the first time since last November. The short position on the stock on January 30th was 97,681,923, down from 125,367,832 two weeks earlier.
The numbers may be a sign that most are buying in to BlackBerry’s recovery. Fourteen of eighteen analysts followed by Zacks Investment Research have a rating of “Hold” or better on the Canadian device maker. Just two analysts now have a “Sell” rating on the stock.
One analyst with a “Buy” rating on BlackBerry is Cormark’s Richard Tse.
Tse, who has a (U.S.) $17.00 one year target on the stock believes BlackBerry will have strong year as it transitions away from a consumer focus.
“BlackBerry’s turnaround has been an uphill battle for some time,” the analyst noted in a late December report to clients. “But despite the intense competition and lack of visibility, the short-term actions have been positive in streamlining the operations and focus. We believe a shift toward enterprise presents a meaningful opportunity. The big risk is execution; however, we believe the potential reward outweighs that risk right now.”
On Friday, December 19th, BlackBerry reported its 2015 third quarter results. The company lost (U.S.) $148-million on revenue of $793-million.
About The Author /
Cantech Letter founder and editor Nick Waddell has lived in five Canadian provinces and is proud of his country's often overlooked contributions to the world of science and technology. Waddell takes a regular shift on the Canadian media circuit, making appearances on CTV, CBC and BNN, and contributing to publications such as Canadian Business and Business Insider.
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My Price target this year is $50 and next 2 year $100
hey if Snap Chat is worth $19B or UBER is worth $40 then BlackBerry can be worth $20-$30
It’s hard to tell if Chen’s Internet of Things is leading, equal to, or behind Apple’s “Hotel”, they’re working on the iPhone w/ your car (like QNX’s infotainment system) and the iWatch, something new with the Apple TV, and of course the rumors about an electric car, something new to compete with Spotify and lastly something to compete with GoPro. And last I saw was that they expect to sell between 5 and 6 million iWatches in March, they even crashed a Paris fashion show to show off the new iWatch and at least one individual hopped a flight from New York JUST to see the new watch.
Apple also hired someone for Apple Search, whoa, that means they want to take out Google. Methinks that they will shoot through the $1 trillion Market Cap sometime this year because they have so many irons in the fire. What surprises me the most is we haven’t heard any rumors of Apple making an offer for Blackberry. With all those patents Blackberry holds, not to mention the iconic keyboard, and all of the vehicles that QNX is installed in – along with QNX being selected by Ford – why wouldn’t Apple buy it?
There’s also the matter of Tesla stealing away Apple employees and vice versa, think I read that Apple is offering huge signing bonuses to some Tesla employees. Come to think of it, why wouldn’t Apple buy Blackberry and Tesla, a few more monster quarters like this last one and it may become a reality.
Blackberry shares should already trade at $18-$20. More likely will get there before October 2015. John Chen is a master of this turn around company. As for Blackberry as a company comes to “what doesn’t kill you, will make you stronger”.
The mobile wars have been difficult to follow. Even for RIM. However, the broad context is a new paradigm called the IoT (USA), Internet of everyThing, Cognitive Age, Age of Robotics, 4th Industrial Revolution (German terminology), and other terms in other nations. Apple has numerous longstanding partnerships with Blackberry: QNX car play, Nortel patent purchase, Rockstar and other partnerships which profit Blackberry. However it appears that Apple Carplay will be contained by Detroit; that Apple healthcare did not “come to” QNX soon enough; that Apple is under attack for lack of reliability, security, privacy, health and safety and so on; that Apple is weak on enterprise. 6 months in the Mobile Wars can change the status quo, and Apple seems to be 6 months behind in innovation for the new paradigm. Nantworks is a potential Google. It’s headed by a genious with $12 billion, 100 scientific breakthroughs and 95 issued patents. Nantworks and Blackberry are golfing partners. Healthcare is an industry reckoned to be several trillion dollars according to various sources. Healthcare is reckoned to be strategic to the leaders of China and India, who are well aware that healthcare and other burdens are bankrupting America. America is the World’s Greatest Debtor Nation and China is the World’s Greatest Creditor Nation. Who is the poster boy for the hundreds of telecoms who push telemedicine? The Nantworks genius. Similarly Detroit is containing Apple in the smartphones on wheels. Detroit is salivating over Apple because Detroit is in the drivers seat. Not Apple. The paradigm shift is very much enterprise, productivity, government and security. Steve Jobs’ launches always focused on leisure and pleasure, the earlier paradigm. If Apple has a mobile phone management solution which equals Blackberry, it’s a well kept secret. If Apple has an Internet of everyThing, as opposed to an Internet of OneThing, that too is a well kept secret. If Apple has anything original to contribute to the new paradigm, that too is a well kept secret. Anyway, March is coming and they’ll all put their cards on the table I suppose. China, South Korea and Asia are important and Blackberry and Nantworks appear to be behind in China.
Chen is a one hit wonder… he save ONE company.
He is hardly a turn around master.
Chen doesn’t have to worry about transitioning away from consumers… they’ve already beat him to it.