UPDATE: Canaccord Genuity Reiterates Hold Rating, Lowers PT on BlackBerry Ltd. Following Weak August Quarter Results

In a report published Monday, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley reiterated a Hold rating on BlackBerry Ltd. BBRY, but lowered the price target from $9.00 to $7.00. In the report, Canaccord Genuity noted, “Consistent with last Friday's preannouncement, BlackBerry published weak August quarter results and did not host an earnings call or provide an update on forward business trends or the Fairfax Financial offer. August quarter results of 3.7M BlackBerry units sold, $1.6B in revenue, and a non-GAAP loss per share of $0.47 were significantly below our prior Street-low estimates. Consistent with our prior sum-of-parts valuation that assigned zero long-term value to BlackBerry's consumer business, management announced a significant restructuring and discontinued consumer-focused BlackBerry products. Given the growing BYOD trend, we view a healthy consumer smartphone business as paramount for a sustainably profitable enterprise franchise. We maintain our belief BlackBerry will ultimately end up selling the company due to the difficult competitive smartphone market and low probability BlackBerry 10 can return BlackBerry to sustained profitability even with the large planned cost reduction plans. While we maintain our HOLD rating, we lower our price target to $7 reflecting our updated sum-of-parts valuation and our belief the most likely outcome for BlackBerry is a sale to Fairfax Financial and its partners at a lower price of $7 post further diligence.” BlackBerry Ltd. closed on Friday at $8.03.