Is BlackBerry stock ready to break out?

It started the year by trading at a two-decades low and then things got worse for its investors. But are shares of BlackBerry (BlackBerry Stock Quote, Chart, News, Analysts, Financials TSX:BB) ready to break out?

In January of 2024, shares of BB fell below four dollars, Canadian. The last time the stock was that low was late-2003, when it began a run that would take it over the $200 mark, in 2007. But that type of magical run was not in the cards this year, as the stock fell to a 52-week low of $2.89.

But now, are things actually looking up? Is the light at the end of the tunnel actually not a train this time?

A string of pretty-good, maybe not great news is currently making BlackBerry stock look positively perky. Last week, a judge in California dismissed a a harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit against BlackBerry CEO John Giamatteo.

That followed on news from earlier this month that Hyundai Mobis, a subsidiary of the Hyundai Motor Group, has selected BlackBerry Ltd.’s BlackBerry QNX to power its digital cockpit platform.

The result is that BlackBerry might be looking like a buy for the first tie in a long time.

Technical analysis of the stock from Trading View has most indicators flashing buy on the stock, with Moving Averages signaling “Strong Buy”. A cursory look at the chart shows a basic flat line pattern since June, something traders value when a stock breaks out, as BB may be doing right now. At press time, shares of BB on the TSX are up marginally on what would be a streak of six consecutive days without a downtick.

Not quite a year into the job, new CEO John Giamatteo insists that things inside the company are mirroring that optimism.

On a conference call around the RBC Global Technology, Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference on November 19, Giamatteo, who took the reins of the company in December of 2023, took a question from the audience about what he hopes will happen over the next year. He painted a picture of a company in distress at the time he took over.

“This time next year, we’ll be having a conversation,” he added. “What are you going to do with your cash? Are we going to do a buyback? Are you going to do a tuck-in with IoT? Are you going to — so, that’s what I would look for is the good problem of what we’re going to do with our cash, getting stable to profitability by taking care of our Cylance and pockets of growth. I’m not going to sit here and say, oh, it’s going to be IoT. We know that’s a good growth trajectory. Although there are some dynamics that just industry wide, we kind of need to navigate. And on the cyber side, we’ve got pockets of opportunities there, but really more stability and profitability on the cyber side. All those things combined, I think we’re pretty confident it’s not going to be a $2.35 stock price when we’re sitting here a year ago — a year from now because the fundamentals of the company has really changed in a very fundamental way.”