BlackBerry Ltd beat analysts' profit estimates for its fourth quarter, and said it expects strong billings at its high-margin software and services business for the full year, sending its U.S.-listed shares up three per cent shortly after market open Wednesday. 

The company, which reinvented itself after customers ditched its smartphones for Apple's iPhones and Android devices, said revenue from its enterprise software and services business rose about 19 per cent to $108 million.

"Our strategy is working," Chief Executive John Chen said during a morning conference call.

BlackBerry, which had about 3,500 enterprise customer orders in the quarter, expects total company software and services billings growth to be in "double-digits" in 2019.

The company extended CEO Chen's contract earlier this month, and followed that up with two big deals in software security - one with Jaguar Land Rover and the other with Microsoft.

The profit beat was helped by higher margins on software and services sales.

“I am very pleased with our execution.  We achieved another record quarter in software and services revenue as we grew across all three of our software businesses," BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in a release.

"Customers and partners recognize our technology innovation and market leadership.  BlackBerry’s market opportunities in unified endpoint management and embedded software are significant and synergistic, and our innovation and execution give us confidence to be a leader in the Enterprise of Things.”  

BlackBerry's gross margins rose to 76 per cent of the revenue, from 60.1 per cent a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company earned 5 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected the company to break even, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net loss narrowed to US$10 million, or 6 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Feb. 28, from US$47 million, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier.

The company's revenue fell 18.5 per cent to US$233 million.

-- With files from BNN