One of the most bullish analysts on the Street with respect to BlackBerry is Gus Papageorgiou from Scotiabank (formerly called Scotia Capital). He recently outlined the reason for his near-term optimism in a Q4 earnings preview report, and I had a read through it. He makes a good case. For Q4 (which will be reported Thursday morning), he’s expecting 1.0 million Z10 shipments, improved...
Following a week of largely positive BlackBerry news, this week has started off with a major analyst downgrade. Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski has downgraded from a buy to a hold recommendation, cutting her target price to $17 (previously $19). I got a copy of the report (thanks, sender) and had a chance to go over it this afternoon. In a nutshell, Goldman has two main...
We’ve had a busy week! Kevin and team are setup in NYC covering all of the launch stuff in the US. And from the financial side, there have been a few research reports issued that are worth discussing. Earlier in the week we had Ehud Gelblum from Morgan Stanley (MS) upgrade the stock to “overweight”, which is equivalent to a buy recommendation at other shops. He raised his target...
This post was inspired by a review of the Z10 posted at CNN Money. You can read it here and leave a comment if you want or jump in on this CrackBerry forum thread, which has been running crazy with action. After all, the author basically called 80 million people luddites. The CNN Money review is a perfect example of the general tech media doing a complete crap job of putting any effort...
On Monday of this week, an industry analyst from research firm Gartner posted a blog entry talking about the launch of the BlackBerry 10 platform in the US, and what it means. I’ve seen several headlines talking about this, yet very few link to the real source, so if you want to read it straight form the horse’s mouth, go here. Note that this isn’t a formal research piece, but more of...
Goldman thinks BBRY revenue will be $3.13 billion, higher than the consensus of $2.85 billion
Yesterday was a big news day for BlackBerry. Verizon announced its Z10 launch details, BlueFin released a report for its research clients saying that BlackBerry has ramped up orders big time, and of course BlackBerry press released its largest order ever. Yup, some “partner” ordered one million devices with shipments starting immediately. I’d like to shed some light on what this means...
Earlier this morning Barons Blog posted a story referencing some research by independent equity research firm, BlueFin Research Partners. The news is positive for BlackBerry. As reported by Barons, BlueFin says it “appears that management is confident that the BlackBerry 10 launches will be an unqualified success” based on supply chain checks. Apparently there has been a “significant...
CrackBerry's in-house analyst Chris Umiastowski talks about BlackBerry shorts
Today marks the one month anniversary for the launch of the BlackBerry Z10 in Canada. Tomorrow the team will posting their 'Z10 - one month later' thoughts, but today I felt it would be useful to recount the positive indicators we've been seeing in the marketplace, as reported by a variety of sources. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I think it captures the most important...
Today we noticed an article in The Telegraph and the headline was quite negative, suggesting that retailers are slashing BlackBerry Z10 prices. They also quoted an analyst, James Faucette from Pacific Crest, talking in very bearish terms about all this. For the record, I have not seen the Pac Crest report, however the way The Telegraph portrays it, the whole thing appears to be very...
In case we haven't officially said it yet, BlackBerry is back. It's game on in Waterloo. The company that many left for dead is very much alive. One month into the commercial launch of BlackBerry 10, I think they've proven at least that much. What's happening with BlackBerry is a lot like the girl who dates her high school sweetheart. He's a bit chubby and a bad dresser, but he's...
Earlier today we got word from GLENTEL, the Canadian public company that owns all of the WIRELESSWAVE locations in this country. Simon already told you in this post that sales of the Z10 exceeded all other smartphones in the month of February at WIRELESSWAVE locations. So what does this mean? I have a few thoughts. First of all, they are not the biggest of retailers but they are...
Last night I came across an article about BlackBerry published on Seeking Alpha. In case you aren't familiar with the site, it's one of the leading sites where anyone can submit investing articles. Many of the articles are of excellent quality. But some are written by people who don't understand accounting, financials, technology or other critical aspects of the topic they are...
This morning the media is all over the news that former co-CEO of Research In Motion now owns zero stock in the company we now call BlackBerry. Here's the official SEC filing indicating that Balsillie now has no stock. He cleared out all holdings by December 31, 2012. This really shouldn't surprise anyone. I have known Balsillie for many years. It's not like we had beers...
* Update - Umi wrote up this editorial on yesterday's Home Depot news, as the stock dipped yesterday and he was writing an editorial around it. Today's much BIGGER BBRY market news here is word that former BlackBerry Co-CEO Jim Balsillie has liquidated his stock in the company. Find out what this means for BlackBerry. Headlines aside, Umi's editorial here is still a good general...
Over the last week we've seen a variety of reports on the sales of BlackBerry Z10 handsets. Some people say they've seen lineups. Others say not so much. And still others apparently think that if you don't generate lineups, your product is not in demand. Case in point: The New York Times published this post on Wednesday. The headline of the article is "Lackluster Start for...
As of today, BlackBerry 10 has been public and in people's hands for just over one week. A lot has been written by industry pundits and analysts. Even more has been written by Team CrackBerry, who's mission is to bring you more insightful and helpful information than anyone else out there. So let's look back over the last week and think about what has happened. The big launch...
Good morning CrackBerry Nation! It's Monday Feb 4th, and as planned, Research In Motion is now BlackBerry on the stock exchanges. The ticker symbol has changed from RIMM to BBRY on the Nasdaq, and from RIM to BB on the Toronto Stock Exchange. And as much as I loathe short term trading, I have to say it's a nice beginning to have the stock up almost 6% in early trading today. A big...
I've spent the last two days reading online BlackBerry Z10 reviews, getting used to my own device, and of course reading Wall Street analyst reports on the stock. I've had tons of requests to do a summary post outlining what Wall Street thinks along with my own perspective. So here it is. INITIAL MOVEMENTS It's interesting to note that BlackBerry's stock price opened higher on...