BlackBerry Ltd Shares Sink On 33% Drop In Q3 Revenue

BlackBerry Ltd

shares fell 13 percent Friday on a substantial third-quarter revenue miss, although the company beat expectations for adjusted earnings. The Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone company's shares were off nearly 6 percent recently, trading at $9.49 a share around midday Friday. BlackBerry's third quarter revenue fell 33 percent and the company said it continues to target "sustainable"adjusted profits "some time in fiscal 2016." The company swung to positive cash flow of $43 million on a "normalized" basis in the recent quarter, from a negative $36 million in the prior quarter. Chief Executive John Chen said the positive cash flow, plus the recent launch of new devices and software, were important milestones. "Our focus now turns to expanding our distribution and driving revenue growth," Chen said. Earlier this week, BlackBerry unveiled a new smartphone with a larger screen and faster browser compared with its BlackBerry Bold 9900. Called the Classic, the device is priced at $449, significantly cheaper that Apple Inc.'s

iPhone 6 at $649 and iPhone 6 Plus at $749. In the recent period, BlackBerry's net loss narrowed to $148 million, or $0.28 cents a share, from $4.4 billion, or $8.37 a share in the year-earlier period. Adjusted earnings equaled $0.01 cent a share, compared with a loss of $0.02 cents a share in 2013. Revenue fell 33 percent to $793 million, from $1.19 billion a year earlier. Wall Street expected an adjusted loss of $0.05 cents a share on revenue of $931.5 million.