What happened
Shares of BlackBerry (BB -1.43%) dropped 17.4% in June, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, despite reasonably solid quarterly results from the enterprise software and services company.
The bulk of Blackberry's decline last month came on June 22, 2018, the day after it revealed that fiscal first-quarter adjusted revenue had declined 11% year over year, to $217 million, which translated to adjusted earnings of $0.03 per share. Both the top and bottom lines arrived well above analysts' consensus estimates, which had called for a breakeven quarter on revenue of $209.6 million.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
So what
BlackBerry CEO John Chen rightly called it a "strong start" to the fiscal year, noting that software and services revenue climbed a healthy 14% year over year. Chen also singled out the success of BlackBerry QNX software, which has doubled its embedded base over the past three years, to over 120 million automobiles.
"We are very excited about the opportunities ahead of us in automobiles and in other EOT verticals," Chen added.
So why, then, did shares decline after BlackBerry's results? One reason was that the market seems discontent over the company's consolidated double-digit revenue declines -- a trend hardly indicative of a company whose management insists its turnaround is essentially complete. It's also worth pointing out that shares were up more than 40% from their 52-week lows going into last month's report, leaving many shareholders tempted to take some of their profits off the table.
Now what
BlackBerry also told investors to expect software and services billings growth to continue climbing in the double-digit percentage range this fiscal year, and adjusted earnings should remain positive, as well -- though we shouldn't anticipate sustained profitability on a GAAP basis just yet.
In any case, while BlackBerry appeared to take a step in the right direction last quarter, investors remain unimpressed. But you can be sure we'll be watching closely to see whether the company can keep moving forward and ultimately convert its skeptics in the quarters ahead.
