Software shift pays off for Blackberry

Article Excerpt

BLACKBERRY LTD. $13 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 531.5 million; Market cap: $6.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 5.9; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) recently quit developing smartphones as part of a plan to focus on its more promising communications software. The company also won a licensing dispute with computer chip maker Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq symbol QCOM). As a result, Blackberry received $940 million (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Excluding that payment and other unusual items, the company earned $10 million, or $0.02 a share, in the three months ended May 31, 2017. That’s a big improvement over the $1 million, or nil per share, it earned a year earlier. Due to its decision to stop making smartphones, revenue in the quarter fell 42.5%, to $244 million from $424 million. BlackBerry is still a hold. hold…