Canaccord Financial says BlackBerry Z10 Sales will Drop in Coming Months

By: Ali Raza  |   February 20th, 2013   |   News, O Canada, Smartphones

Canaccord Financial Inc’s equity research department said on Tuesday, February 19 that worldwide surveys depict initial sales of BlackBerry’s latest all-touch Z10 smartphone as mixed rather than being strong. They claimed the shortage of devices at some stores was not caused by greater demand, but because the Waterloo-based company had disbursed their handsets in limited numbers. Canaccord’s analyst Michael Walkley said that, “Our follow-up checks have indicated steady but modest sales levels. We anticipate carriers will not build large inventory levels for BB10, consistent with prior BB7 high-end launches, and will initially stock modest levels given the weaker consumer demand for high-end BlackBerry smartphones.” The financial company also said that delays in BlackBerry Z10’s launch in the US until the mid of March or later along with the speculations of Samsung Galaxy S IV release in America during the same time period can further lower the sales of the latest smartphone not only for the month of February, but also for the rest of the year.

 

It is because of such concerns that Canaccord did not raise the target price of BlackBerry’s stock like other financial companies. The organization has repeatedly said that their sell rating and price aim for the stocks of this Canadian company is just $9.

 

However, in contrast to Canaccord, Citigroup has raised the target price of BlackBerry’s shares to an “outperform” level by giving it a $19.50 rating at the start of this month. Whereas Jefferies another financial institution has maintained its call of “buy” for this stock with a rating similar to Citigroup.

 

Alike Citigroup and Jefferies, Bernstein Research also has a positive stance on BlackBerry’s shares. In fact it has gone a few steps beyond the aforementioned groups because the target price that Bernstein Research has claimed for BlackBerry’s stocks is $22. Bernstein Research has raised the price from $12.

 

After plunging down before the launch of Z10, the shares of BlackBerry look stable now, as they were trading at a price of $14.68 on the Toronto Stock Exchange during Tuesday’s trading session. But still there are few signs of worry, as this Canadian smartphone manufacturer is looking to depart from the Korean mobile market. It is because of this very reason, BlackBerry has no plans to bring its latest BB10 platform to this market.

 

In a statement sent through email, BlackBerry said that, “We will continue to support the carrier’s ongoing BlackBerry sales in Korea. We will continue to provide BlackBerry service and after-sales support to BlackBerry’s Korean customers, both consumers and business users.”

 

Source: OBJ

Photo: Pocket-Lint