BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) Beats Earnings Estimate, Hardware Sales Struggle

BlackBerry Ottawa

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) earnings came in above the consensus estimates, but revenue failed to beat the estimates. For the fourth-quarter, BlackBerry posted earnings of 4 cents per share compared to a loss of 8 cents a share, last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $600 million compared to $976 million last year.

BlackBerry beat earnings estimate

Thomson Reuters consensus estimates expected the Canadian firm to post a loss of 4 cents per share on $794 million in revenue. For the quarter, approximately 42% of the revenue came from hardware, 47% from the services and 10% from the software. BlackBerry recognized an average ASP of $211 compared to $180 in the last quarter. Non-GAAP gross margin came in at 48.3% while on the GAAP basis it was 48.2%.

“Our focus this past year was on getting our financial house in order while creating a multi-year growth strategy and investing in our product portfolio,” Chen said on Friday. “We now have a very good handle on our margins, and our product roadmaps have been well received.”

Moving forward, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) continue to expect positive cash flow. The Canadian firm is improving its distribution skills, and expect the results from the same to be visible from some time in fiscal 2016.

Hardware sales disappoint

One of major negative of the earnings report was the poor show by the mobile device division. For the quarter, the Canadian firm recognized revenue on 1.3 million units while 1.6 million devices were sold to the customers. The number is unchanged from last year, but back then the company sold 3.4 million phones to the customers.

But this should not be seen as a sign of grave trouble. As Chen has been working on a turnaround including lowering the dependence on the hardware sales to focus on the enterprise security software for mobile devices. However, this does not mean that BlackBerry is abandoning the hardware. The company, earlier this month, announced new smartphone models, including both an affordable and luxury option.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) shares were up pre-market following the earnings announcement.