14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian Company Research In Motion (RIM), known for their BlackBerry smartphone, reported quarterly earnings of $370.5 million, which translates into 65 cents per share. Analysts estimate an yearly revenue of over $1.65 billion.
"It is clear from the results in this quarter that BlackBerry smartphones have crossed over from being viewed as a primarily enterprise product to being marketed as a strong mainstream offering," said company's CEO Jim Balsillie. According to the company, about 1.65 million BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added during the quarter, while RIM shipped more than 3.9 million intelligent handsets.
"It was really driven on stronger consumer volumes in December," said Peter Misek, an analyst with Canaccord Adams. For the fourth fiscal quarter, the company estimates an increase in revenue from $1.8 billion to $1.87 billion, as the consumer market continues to grow and expand outside North America.
According to CEO Jim Balsillie, further forecasting will be almost impossible, because of the increase in the consumer subscriptions, as part of the business is a complete novelty to Research In Motion. "It makes the guidance even more impressive," Misek said.
The company's stock is up 151 percent since January as of Thursday's close. Its shares added 4.8 percent ($4.86) and closed at $106.99. Within a few hours, they experienced a new increase to $119.43.
"It's just been on a rocket ship," said Deepak Chopra, an analyst with National Bank Financial. "You're going to see this company to grow for some time to come. This just shows they are executing phenomenally well."
Chopra considers that an economic slow can not affect the BlackBerry manufacturer. Yet, the third-quarter results have been made public immediately after the company was sued by telecom company TeleCommunication Systems over patent infringement of the technology that allows users to access multiple e-mail accounts on their wireless devices.