Canadian technology giant, Research In Motion‘s stock price has rallied in the last few days as the the launch date of the struggling firm’s new operating system and smartphones approaches. With the BlackBerry 10 and related devices expected to hit the market by early next year, the makers of the famed BlackBerry devices has seen its stocks jump nearly 17 per cent and close at $11.61 on November 23. The rally may in part be due to the positive remarks from analysts that have previously spoken negatively of the company.
Some analysts like Peter Misek of Jefferies & Co. upgraded his recommendation from “underperform” to “hold” and increased the target price to $10. Kris Thompson of National Bank Financial also upgraded the proce target of RIM stock to $15. He believes the share price will get another bump right before th launch of the BlackBerry10. He also stated that, “The new management team is executing by maintaining the BlackBerry subscriber base, managing costs and cash, and seemingly readying a February 2013 BB10 global platform launch. Most analysts were expecting a March launch.”
RIM had originally planned to launch BB10 a lot earlier but delays pushed the release date past market expectations and the company received both bad press and analyst reviews. There is still no exact date set for release but the Waterloo based firm has announced that it will be releasing its first BB10 full touchscreen phone and a more familiar QWERTY and touch combo on January 30, 2013.
After some very disappointing quarters, RIM announced unexpectedly that it had increased its subscriber count to slightly over 80 million global users. The company’s growth was expected to stagnate or drop off globally after many large corporate clients were expected to switch over to Apple’s iPhone or devices running Google’s Android operating system. Another positive factor was CEO Thorsten Heins moves to improve management cut costs by releasing 5,000 employees and growing cash to $2.3-billion.
The latest recovery may just be a short lived movement but many analysts are now stating that RIM might have a chance to recover. The company had previously been written off by many but with BB10 and devices getting positive review the market is becoming cautiously optimistic. However, the survival of the firm will ultimately be in the hands of the consumers and whether they actually come out to buy the new BB10 devices rather than products from competitors like Apple.
Source: The Globe and Mail