Two Analysts Remain Cautious on RIM Rally
Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) may still be down and out, but its shares have made a major recovery from the bottom. After a Goldman Sachs upgrade to Buy on Friday with a $16 price target, shares had rallied a whopping 86% to $11.60 from the September 24 low of $6.22. Now we have two analysts cautioning on this move.
Stern Agee has maintained a Neutral rating, but Canaccord Genuity has cut RIM to Sell with a $10.00 price target.
Shaw Wu of Stern Agee said:
With RIMM shares rallying ~30% in recent weeks, many have asked if the company's fortunes have changed. Our answer is yes and no. Yes in the sense that consensus expectations have likely gotten too pessimistic in that there could be upside surprises. But no in that RIMM's journey remains challenging where it will likely continue to post large operating losses and still needs to gain developer and mainstream user interest beyond carriers who fear the growing dominance of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG).
Canaccord Genuity's T. Michael Walkley opined that the fundamentals do not support recent share appreciation, and he downgraded RIM to Sell from Neutral. He said:
Over the past month, RIM shares have markedly increased ahead of the January 30 launch of long-awaited high-tier BlackBerry 10 smartphones. While initial sales of higher-ASP BlackBerry 10 smartphones should improve RIM's January and May quarter device sales and ASP mix, our checks and analysis of the global competitive landscape suggest a very low probability BlackBerry 10 sales can turn around RIM's long-term business trends."
Wall Street is not listening and still wants to buy this stock up as short sellers are getting squeezed. The stock is up 10 cents at $11.70 today against a 52-week range of $6.22 to $17.96.
JON C. OGG
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Analyst Calls Tagged: AAPL, GOOG, RIMM
