Focus on software fuels BlackBerry

Article Excerpt

BLACKBERRY LTD. $16 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 537.1 million; Market cap: $8.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 9.4; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) quit developing smartphones in 2016 as part of a plan to focus on its more promising communications software. As a result of its new strategy, software and services supplied 81% of its revenue for the fiscal 2018 year ended February 28, 2018. That’s up from just 50% in 2017. The software operations are also more profitable than BlackBerry’s legacy operations. Its gross margin (gross profits divided by revenue) should improve from 75% in 2018 to between 80% and 85% in 2019. The stock has jumped 40% in the past year. However, it now trades at a very expensive 205.3 times the $0.06 U.S. a share that BlackBerry will likely earn in fiscal 2019. BlackBerry is still a hold. hold…