BlackBerry Earnings Vote — John Chen’s Turnaround Is Working

BlackBerry’s shares will jump because a merely lousy quarter is better than the awful quarter that had been forecast by analysts. The company sold 1.6 million phones to its distribution channels in the quarter, up from 1.3 million in the same period last year, and sell through to end-users totaled 2.6 million units, a total that includes shipments made and recognized prior to the first quarter, and that reduced BlackBerry’s channel inventory.

In the prior quarter, BlackBerry sold 3.4 million phones, more than half of which were BlackBerry 7 devices. Perhaps the company will spell out first-quarter sales in its conference call, but don’t count on it. The declining revenue numbers say all that needs to be said about what the company is selling.

First-quarter revenue was down $10 million sequentially and BlackBerry still gets more than 40% of its revenues from its Europe, Middle East and Africa region. North American revenue dropped from 30.4% in the March quarter to 28.6% in the May quarter.

Here is BlackBerry’s outlook statement:

The Company anticipates maintaining its strong cash position, while increasingly looking for opportunities to prudently invest in growth. The Company is targeting break-even cash flow results by the end of fiscal 2015.

That statement is essentially identical to the company’s stated outlook at the end of the prior quarter.

ALSO READ: How Much Is Bezos Willing to Lose on New Fire Phone?

The consensus estimates for the second quarter call for an EPS loss of $0.25 on revenues of $969.17 million. For the full year, analysts expect an EPS loss of $0.95 on revenues of $3.99 billion.

The company’s CEO, turnaround star John Chen, said:

Our performance in fiscal Q1 demonstrates that we are firmly on track to achieve important milestones, including our financial objectives and delivering a strong product portfolio. Over the past six months, we have focused on improving efficiency in all aspects of our operations to drive cost reductions and margin improvement. Looking forward, we are focusing on our growth plan to enable our return to profitability.

Shares were up about 10.4% in premarket trading, at $9.15 in a 52-week range of $5.44 to $15.09. The consensus analyst price target was around $8.10 before the results were announced. The stock closed at $8.29 on Wednesday, so the 31 analysts covering the stock are not paying much attention to it.

ALSO READ: America’s Most Profitable Products