BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has been a turnaround story in the making for a long time, and expectations for the company are pretty low. However, RBC Capital Markets analysts raised their price target for the company as they see breakeven cash flow levels in sight. They maintained their Sector Perform rating but bumped up their price target from $10 to $11 per share.
BlackBerry heading for breakeven
Cash burn worries have been a big problem for BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB), although they were made even worse when the company revealed a sharp decline in shipments for its devices. Analyst Mark Sue and his team expects BlackBerry’s service revenues to fall at a slower rate now while the company’s purchase commitments fall. When adding in the sale of its real estate and cuts in operating expenditures, they see breakeven as being possible by the 2016 fiscal year.
They note that “real earnings” might still be years away, but they think the decline in services revenues now looks to be at more manageable levels.
Customers moved on from BlackBerry
The RBC team conducted a survey about BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) recently, focusing on more than 1,000 enterprise users. They found a “sticky customer base” in the financial, government and legal segments. They think the company needs to act quickly if it is going to keep what few customers it has, noting that preference for the BlackBerry brand has fallen below that of Motorola.
They also say that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) show focus more on playing off of its strengths. The main things die-hard BlackBerry users like about the devices are the QWERTY keyboard, their reliability, battery life and security.
Enterprises may stick with BlackBerry longer
The RBC team notes what looks like a “longer tail,” however, for enterprise customers. They note that users have less say in decisions made by departments and regulatory or compliance and security. Also the costs for switching away from BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) devices can be high, so enterprises may be inclined to sit with them, at least for now.
The analysts say one area BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has not yet capitalized on is leveraging its enterprise customer base for its mobile device management offerings. They said enterprise customers remain largely unaware of BlackBerry’s MDM products as well as these products from other companies. They believe BlackBerry must begin leveraging its brand name and marketing its MDM offerings to the enterprise customers it still has—before it’s too late.
