BlackBerry, CrackBerry, EarningsBerry... When Good Isn't Good Enough (RIMM)

Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) report its highly awaited earnings today.  The BlackBerry maker posted $0.98 EPS and $3.42 billion in revenues. The Thomson Reuters estimate was $0.94 EPS on $3.42 billion in revenues and the company previously gave guidance of $0.88 to $0.97 EPS and revenue of $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion.  Today was not about earnings.  It was about how much it would outperform against the expectations.

We had an unofficial whisper number of $1.00 and over $3.5 billion, but we want to caution that whisper numbers are not always reflective of a final forecast

The company also guided the coming quarter to $0.94 to $1.03 EPS and $3.45 to $3.7 billion, while estimates are $0.97 EPS and $3.59 billion.

Total new subscriber accounts were in-line at 3.8 million. At the end of the prior quarter, its BlackBerry subscriber account base was approximately 25 million.  The company’s guidance for this last quarter report was 3.7 to 3.9 million net account subscriber additions with a margin forecast of about 43% to 44%.

The company said 7.8 million units were shipped, below the 8 million we were looking for. RIM is also looking for another 3.8 million to 4.1 million in net subscriber additions.

This stock had doubled recently from lows, but that was before the selling this week.  We had an unofficial closing bell price of -0.85% at $76.55.  Shares are trading down just under $74.00 in after-hours trading and the 52-week range is $35.05 to $148.13.

Jon C. Ogg