Macquarie Expresses Concerns over BlackBerry's Software Negotiations

On Tuesday, Macquarie analyst Kevin Smithen raised the price target on

despite concerns on the company's lack of emphasis on software. The analyst commented, "BBRY still must, in our view, demonstrate the value proposition of BES 12 to enterprise customers. All of the talk on new hardware devices etc. is just noise, in our view. Hardware will never be a major source of profits for BBRY, in our view, even at 3mm units/qtr. Software is the company's future and we heard very little on the conf. call on how customer negotiations are progressing." Smithen sees BBM subs staying flat at 85 million. Macquarie reported that new phone launches are likely to accelerate the pace of seq. services revenue declines. The analyst expects $739 million in software revenue in FY17. Macquarie raised BlackBerry's price target from $7.07 to $7.25. FY15 and FY16 EPS estimates were raised to ($0.17) and ($0.14), respectively. Shares of BlackBerry closed at $9.84 on Tuesday and are currently down 1.30 percent.