RIM Shares Up Ahead of Earnings, Talk of Touch-Screen Phone
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Research In Motion saw its shares rise to an all-time high on Thursday amid bullish expectations just hours before its next quarterly earnings report is due out.
Another potential factor lifting the stock: Images surfaced on some bloggers' sites of a new BlackBerry in development that sports a touch-screen, which was a key feature in the hot-selling iPhone by Apple.
By early afternoon, shares of Research In Motion were up 2.3% at $98.52. The stock is trading at an all-time high range on a split-adjusted basis, having crested the $100 mark last week and up more than 130% for the year to date.
The company is slated to report results for its second fiscal quarter after the market's closing bell. Wall Street is expecting revenue to more than double from the same period last year to $1.36 billion. Earnings are expected to be 50 cents a share, according to consensus forecasts from Thomson Financial.
"We believe RIM is likely to report August quarter revenue toward the high end of its ... guidance," wrote Tim Long of Banc of America Securities in a report for clients.
Long said he expects the company's BlackBerry 8800 and Pearl models to be the strongest sellers for the period, with additional strength from the 8830 model and the Curve. The Pearl and Curve devices are targeted towards consumers as opposed to the company's core market on the corporate side.
Also on Thursday, a gadget blog called The Boy Genius Report ran a photo of what it claimed to be the BlackBerry 9000, a touch-screen device that the site speculated would be for release sometime early next year. A representative for Research In Motion wasn't immediately available to comment.
Rob Sanderson of American Technology Research said the Boy Genius site has provided reliable information about RIM products in the past.
"If all this is true - the RIMM story has a lot of legs into next year and going forward," Sanderson wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. He rates the stock as a buy with a $100 price target.
The stock's strong run this year has caused some worries about valuation. On Monday, Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets downgraded RIM from his "top pick" to an outperform rating, noting that the run-up "leaves less upside potential."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 4th October 2007