UPDATE: Goldman Sachs Reiterates Buy Rating, Raises PT on Research In Motion Limited

In a report published Friday, Goldman Sachs Group reiterated its Buy rating on Research In Motion Limited

, and slightly raised its price target from $16.00 to $17.00. Goldman Sachs noted, “This was the second consecutive quarter that RIM exceeded Street expectations, primarily due to the Street under-estimating RIM's cost cuts and ASPs – consistent with our thesis. Device ASPs of $229 were above GS/consensus of $224/$216, gross margin of 31.6% was above GS/ consensus of 30.0%/27.9%, and operating margin of (6.4%) compared to GS/consensus at (4.7%)/(10.6%). In after-hours trading, the stock initially rose significantly but then fell back sharply during the Q&A as management commented on changes to its services revenue model on BB10 – though we view that as consistent with our estimate for a 22% decline in services revenue in FY14 (February). We lower our FY13/14/15 EPS estimates to ($1.02)/$0.12/($0.87) from ($0.99)/$0.20/($0.62) on higher opex, but maintain our Buy as we remain well above consensus for FY14, and have greater confidence into the BB10 launch given expanding carrier support and RIM's higher cash balance.” Research In Motion Limited closed on Thursday at $14.12.