BlackBerry loss less than expected, sales top forecasts

BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO 10.47%) reported a smaller-than-expected fiscal third-quarter loss on Friday and its first quarter-to-quarter revenue gain in over two years, indicating turnaround efforts may be gaining traction.

The better-than-expected results, driven by higher hardware and software revenues, sent up BlackBerry shares by 6.3 percent to $8.29 in premarket trading in New York.

In the quarter ended Nov. 28, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company reported a loss of $89 million, or 17 cents a share. That compared with a year ago loss of $148 million, or 28 cents a share.

Excluding a noncash credit tied to a change in the fair value of debentures, restructuring charges and other one-time items, the company posted a loss of $15 million, or 3 cents a share.

Quarterly revenue fell 31 percent to $548 million from a year earlier, but rose 12 percent from the prior quarter, after nine consecutive quarters of declines.

Analysts, on average, expected the company to post a loss of 14 cents a share on revenue of $489 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Software revenue, a key metric closely watched by analysts as the company pivots its focus to that segment, more than doubled to $162 million from a year earlier.

Year-to-date software revenue is about $362 million, within striking range of the company's forecast target of $500 million for the current fiscal year ending Feb. 29, 2016.

Revenue from smartphone sales also rose for the first time in four quarters to $214 million from $201 million in the second quarter.

/By AzerTac/