Analysts do not think that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) Classic is sufficient for bringing the company back to glory, but the Canadian firm counts heavily on it. The company registered disappointing sales in the last quarter, but it is confident that by 2016 it will be able to return and sustainable profitability.
“We agree with [Chen] that sustainable profitability in [fiscal 2016] can only come from revenue growth, but we just do not see the Passport or Classic as the blockbuster products the company needs,” said Michael Genovese of MKM Partners. Genovese has given a price target of $10 to the stock and a Neutral rating.
BlackBerry counting on Classic
The company hopes that in the next two years it will be able to push up the revenue as a result of higher average selling prices. The two new devices, Passport and Classic, have both hit the shelves and the company hopes that both of those will help in increasing sales. But the analysts say that it is not possible for the two devices to do the magic and would need help from more.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) CEO John Chen informed during the earnings call that the Classic has been received well by the market, and the company have hired “couple hundred employees” on field to drive the growth of the device.
Will Classic be enough?
The company’s stock had a price target of $13 from Rod Hall, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, who has now sliced the price target to $10 and has given a neutral rating to the stock. This is so because the analyst is not sure of the revenue remaining stable for long. In light of this, Hall has even lowered his revenue targets for fiscal 2015 and 2016 by 9.4% and 9.9% respectively.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is shifting its focus to the “value added” products and services, and has diversified away from the traditional branded devices of its own and this is the company’s best strategy, believe the analysts.
BlackBerry needs to possess the ability to offset soft device sales with non-BlackBerry devices and new services and this is what the world will focus on, says Raymond James’s Steven Li. Not only Li increased his full-year estimates on BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB), but also revised the price target to $11, which was 50 cents higher than before.
Despite Chen’s confidence, analysts are doubtful that Classic would be enough to carry BlackBerry hopes especially in the developed markets, which are dominated by big names like Apple, Google, Samsung.
