UBS Securities’s co-analysts Amitabh Passi and Phillip Huang today reiterate a Neutral rating on shares of Research in Motion (RIMM), while cutting their price target 50 cents to $15, writing that the fiscal Q4 that ended in February was probably “another tough quarter” for the company.
Passi and Huang cut their estimates for the quarter to $4.4 billion in revenue and 81 cents EPS from a prior $4.7 billion and 87 cents. The BlackBerry devices that came out last fall on OS7 “continue to struggle,” they write, while the company’s “PlayBook” tablet computer has “seen some traction on discounted pricing.”
Passi and Huang model RIMM having shipped 11.5 million handsets and 375,000 PlayBook units.
The company’s “BlackBerry World” event on May 1st to 3rd may offer some more details about a potentially important product, the “Mobile Fusion” tool that RIM is offering to corporate IT to manage non-BlackBerry devices, such as Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and devices based on Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system.
The authors have been “unimpressed” with Mobile Fusion so far, they write, but there’s potential there:
We believe if RIM can deliver a timely offering with compelling features and economics, it has the potential to leverage its installed base to address a pressing need for CIOs/IT managers. With MDM [mobile device management] pricing at ~$2-5/device/month (RIM at $4), and ~5b smartphones deployed globally by FY15 (UBSe), we believe the market potential is large for winners in this space.
RIM stock today is up 29 cents, or 2%, at $13.49.
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