BlackBerry Pearl a Success For RIM
It may have missed its earnings per share target by a single penny, but it seems as if Research In Motion investors don't care. The company beat both revenue and subscriber targets by a large margin. Key to RIM's success has been high demand for the BlackBerry Pearl.
The Pearl addressed a segment of the market that the company had largely ignored in its path to success: the consumer. Based on Thursday's results, that might no longer be the case.
The Waterloo, Ontario based company even beat the most rosy of projections for subscriber additions. RIM had said in September to expect 800,000 new subscribers, although some on the Street believed the company will be able to beat that number by as much as 50,000.
Instead, the company added 875,000 new customers, bringing its total base to 7 million. "They demolished expectations," Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek told Reuters Thursday after the release of the numbers.
Revenues also spiked to $835.1 million USD, up 49 percent from last year. Profits increased 46 percent to $176 million USD, or 93 cents per share. Such a great quarter is also causing the company to be bullish on its holiday quarter numbers, due out in March.
RIM expects revenues between $900 and $940 million USD on subscriber additions of 900,000 to 975,000. However, those numbers may be on the low side. As some analysts believe, there is a possibility that the company could break 1 million net additions during the holiday quarter.
The outlook is also much different from those of earlier this year. Uncertainty surrounding the company's legal troubles involving patent holding company NTP took its toll on the company and its stock price. However, following the much-publicized settlement, things turned around quickly.
The stock price has risen from $80 USD in the days surrounding the announcement of the settlement to $133 USD in Friday morning trading, an increase of 66 percent. Much of that increase has been indeed due to the Pearl.
"We are extremely pleased with the strong revenue and subscriber account growth achieved in the third quarter," said Jim Balsillie, Chairman and Co-CEO at RIM. "New product launches during the past few months have exceeded our expectations and we look forward to continuing this momentum into the new year." He added in a conference call that the launch of the Pearl was the most successful product launch in the company's 22-year history.
RIM's best days may still be ahead: Wall Street analysts are abuzz over new devices in the pipeline which they believe have the potential to be even more successful than the Pearl.