Paul Bagnell

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Disappointing revenue forecasts at BlackBerry sent the company’s shares down as much as seven per cent in Wednesday’s trading, before rebounding to trade flat on the day.

Investors’ unease with the outlook was substantial enough to outweigh better-than-expected earnings per share and impressive growth in the BlackBerry’s internet of things business.

BlackBerry said revenue in the current quarter would come in between US$125 million and US$135 million.  According to Paul Treiber, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, that implies BlackBerry’s full year revenue will miss earlier forecasts from the company.

Blackberry is now in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2022 and the quarter will end on the final day of February.

In its fiscal third quarter, which ended on Nov. 30, the company reported a 15.5 per cent decline in revenue from a year earlier, to US$184 million.  Earnings per share was breakeven, versus the loss of US$0.07 expected by analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

Revenue grew by 34 per cent to US$43 million in the company’s internet of things segment, where Blackberry provides software for the increasing array of products and devices connected to the internet.

Less impressive was the lack of revenue growth in BlackBerry’s important cybersecurity unit, where revenue was US$128 million versus US$130 million a year earlier.

“What continues to ail cyber?” asked analyst Steve Li at Raymond James in a report reacting to the results. His best guess was that BlackBerry is losing too many cybersecurity customers to competitors.

Both analysts are watching for BlackBerry to announce a sale of its huge patent portfolio sometime in January.  The sale has been in the works for some time and should, Treiber said, fetch about US$1 billion for BlackBerry in a one-time gain.