BlackBerry (BB) Q3 Earnings Beat On Solid Revenues, Stock Up

BlackBerry Limited Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

BlackBerry Limited price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | BlackBerry Limited Quote

Revenues

Quarterly GAAP revenues increased 18.1% year over year to $267 million. Non-GAAP revenues improved 22.8% to $280 million with strong performance of the software and service businesses (up 26% year over year to $275 million). Region wise, North America generated GAAP revenues of $188 million compared with $151 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenues from Europe, Middle East and Africa were $60 million, up 7.1% year over year, while revenues from other regions remained flat at $19 million.

By product and service type, non-GAAP revenues from IoT decreased 3.3% year over year to $145 million. BlackBerry Cylance non-GAAP revenues came in at $53 million, benefiting from its acquisition of cybersecurity firm, Cylance. This boosted the company’s software and services business as it has provided additional cyber security capabilities with advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. Non-GAAP revenues from Licensing were $77 million, up 13.2% year over year, while Other non-GAAP revenues decreased to $5 million from $9 million.

Other Details

Gross profit for the quarter increased to $198 million from $170 million in the year-ago quarter on higher revenues. Total operating expenses more than doubled to $227 million from $112 million due to higher selling, marketing and administration expenses, and lower favorable adjustment of debentures fair value. Operating loss was $29 million against operating income of $58 million in the prior-year quarter.

Cash Flow & Liquidity

During the first nine months of fiscal 2020, BlackBerry utilized $8 million of net cash for operations against cash generation of $82 million in the year-ago period. On a reported basis, the company generated $37 million of free cash flow in the quarter.

As of Nov 30, 2019, BlackBerry had $515 million in cash and equivalents. The cybersecurity software and services company’s total cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments were $970 million as of the same date.

Outlook

For fiscal 2020, management remains confident to meet the consensus estimate for non-GAAP earnings of 6 cents per share on revenues of $1.1 billion. Based on solid year-to-date performance, the company further expects to even top earnings estimates and record non-GAAP earnings in the vicinity of 8 cents per share.

BlackBerry continues to invest in the right opportunities to drive long-term growth and profitability. Its strong product cycle and incremental contribution from Cylance instill optimism. Further, the company is integrating its endpoint management and artificial intelligence technologies on one platform to address the high-growth endpoint security market.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

BlackBerry currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the industry include KT Corporation (NYSE:KT) , PLDT Inc. (NYSE:PHI) and Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (NYSE:MBT) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

KT Corporation has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 11.5%.

PLDT is currently trading at a forward P/E of 8x.

Mobile TeleSystems has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 4.9%.

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