Hi everyone. We're about to kick off our coverage of RIM's earnings results, which should be out shortly.
As far as earnings expectations go, the street is looking for something along the lines of $4.54-billion in revenue and roughly $0.82 in EPS.
RT @michaelbabad: Canada's going to get rid of the penny! #cdnecon #cdnpoli
By this point, most analysts are pretty skeptical on RIM, to say the least.
"The company is on a declining trajectory and there is little reason to think this is going to change with the current strategy.," wrote BGC analyst Colin Gillis in a note to clients. "Our take is that customers view the brand as yesterday’s phone, and developers are not building for the platform."
And from Canaccord Genuity's Michael Walkley: “Our monthly channel checks indicated weak sell-through trends for BlackBerry 7 smartphones despite increased marketing efforts . . . We believe RIM significantly increased subsidies in key markets during the last two weeks of February, which helped clear excess channel inventory along with PlayBook inventory. However, we anticipate weak May quarter guidance versus consensus and maintain our well-below-consensus estimates for F2013."
Hi everyone, I'm Darcy Keith with Globe Investor
Here’s what’s expected of the fourth-quarter results, which ended March 3.
RIM has said it expects fourth-quarter earnings will be in the range of 80 cents to 95 cents per share on revenue of $4.6 billion to $4.9 billion US.
Analysts are being cautious, and are betting on the low end of those ranges.
Analysts polled by FactSet on average expect earnings of 81 cents per share on revenue of $4.54 billion.
In the same period a year ago, RIM earned $710 million, or $1.27 per share, on revenue of $4.08 billion.
For the current fiscal quarter ending in May, analysts expect $4.3 billion in revenue and earnings of 67 cents per share and earnings of $4.08 per share for the year.
RIM shares on the Nasdaq actually managed to close up, rising 5 cents to $13.72, unofficially
If RIM is about to post bad news, they couldn't have picked a better day to do so, with everyone's attention on the budget.
$12.45 is the multi-year low hit Dec. 20
we're hearing RIM has been halted
Last rade in the aftermarket, was up 3.2%, at 14.17
We are still waiting on earnings, trading halted in the post market
That's often not a good sign
So, earnings aside, many will be looking to see what the new CEO, Thorsten Heins, has planned for the company. Will the fabled new chief marketing officer be appointed after a quarter of searching? Will he announce a lot of management changes? I've already been told by a source that he's clearing out SVP/VP level managers. I didn't hear that there's any c-suite changes, but those might come on the call. My source said: "It's all bad news." So we'll see.
We're still waiting for the earnings. Stock still halted. Should be out any minute. Conf call at 5 pm ET.
For what it's worth, here are the numbers for the same quarter one year ago: Revenue of $5.5-billion, EPS of $1.78 (diluted).
Apologies about non-RIM tweets showing up here! It's a bit of busy news day at The Globe (presumably, I'm in the Waterloo bureau).
23 minutes to conf call, earnings gotta come out soon
RT @ericjackson: From the CrackBerry Live Blog: "Drink if they mention how well they're doing in Indonesia"
RIM earnings are usually out by now. I wonder what's going on. I imagine its a busy day for the leadership team over there, but the earnings call is only 20 minutes away now...
Yeah, this gives analysts very little time to figure out what's going on before getting to ask the CEO questions on the conference call.
Although, to be fair, it's not like nobody's going to notice miserable results if they get released later in the day, so maybe there's another explanation
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Jim Balsillie, former co-CEO, has resigned from the board of $RIMM.
RT @thehartley: Jim Balsillie has resigned from the board of directors at RIM. #cdntech
So, earnings aside, many will be looking to see what the new CEO, Thorsten Heins, has planned for the company. Will the fabled new chief marketing officer be appointed after a quarter of searching? Will he announce a lot of management changes? I've already been told by a source that he's clearing out SVP/VP level managers. I didn't hear that there's any c-suite changes, but those might come on the call. My source said: "It's all bad news." So we'll see.
