Analyst cuts rating on BlackBerry, stock falls

With BlackBerry set to announce its fiscal first quarter earnings report next week, Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu has cut his rating on the shares of the Canadian manufacturer to "underperform", resulting in a 4.6% drop in the price of the stock on Wednesday. While a pair of analysts last week both said that they expect BlackBerry to have shipped more phones than expected in the prior quarter, Ferragu sees disappointing results coming from the announcement.

In a note to clients, Ferragu said, "The initial enthusiasm that we observed for Blackberry 10 devices now appears to be waning," and cut his target on the stock to $10 from $15. BlackBerry has introduced three BlackBerry 10 models this year with another 3 to 4 expected before the end of the year. BlackBerry has been guarded about how well the all-touch BlackBerry Z10 and the QWERTY equipped BlackBerry Q10 have fared in the market, so the earnings report is expected to be closely watched by both Wall Street analysts and industry players.

As of mid-day Wednesday, BlackBerry shares were trading at $14.16, down 68 cents on the day. Last September, the stock traded as low as $6.22.

source: Reuters