What happened
"The Meme Stock Trade Is Far From Over," declared Barron's on July 12, 2021 -- but somebody forgot to tell investors in BlackBerry Limited (BB 1.09%) stock. Over the course of the month of July, as the S&P 500 put together a modest 2.2% rise, shares of Reddit favorite BlackBerry fell a depressing 16.2%.
And yet, can you really blame BlackBerry investors for being unenthused in July after what happened in late June?
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
As you may recall, BlackBerry reported its fiscal Q1 2022 earnings on June 24, and while the news wasn't horrible, it certainly wasn't great.
In Q1 2022, BlackBerry narrowly edged out analyst targets for quarterly revenue, reporting $174 million where the Street had projected $171 million. Earnings, however, just matched projections -- and by "earnings," I mean "losses," because BlackBerry lost $0.11 per share in Q1.
Analysts were quick to condemn the stock for its performance, with at least four separate analysts downgrading BlackBerry shares to various flavors of "sell" on the news.
And that was the context in which investors were viewing BlackBerry as it entered into the month of July -- a month, by the way, in which BlackBerry made few announcements of real note with which to buoy investor confidence.
Now what
What could change this story as July turns into August? Actually, the analyst notes from June do suggest one possibility. At the time, TheFly.com noted Canaccord Genuity pointing out that, if BlackBerry succeeds in selling part or all of its patent portfolio, "value could be unlocked and the capital infusion could drive accelerated software and services growth." Analysts at CIBC echoed the thought, predicting that "the odds of a patent portfolio sale are now higher."
In the meantime, however, BlackBerry stock remains what it already was: A profitless company selling for nearly seven times revenue -- and declining revenue, at that.
