We’ve cut BlackBerry’s TSINetwork rating

Article Excerpt

BLACKBERRY LTD. $8.44 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 524.6 million; Market cap: $4.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) lost $965 million, or $1.84 a share, in the three months ended August 31, 2013 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). That’s mainly because it wrote down the value of its unsold Z10 touchscreen smartphones by $934 million. A year earlier, it lost $229 million, or $0.44 a share. Revenue fell 45.0%, to $1.6 billion from $2.9 billion. The company has accepted a $9.00 U.S.-a-share takeover offer from Fairfax Financial Holdings (Toronto symbol FFH). However, it’s unclear if Fairfax can complete the deal. That’s why the stock is trading at 9.8% below the offer price. Due to its worsening financial condition, we’ve cut BlackBerry’s TSINetwork Rating from “Average” to “Speculative.” BlackBerry is a hold, but only for aggressive investors. investors…