(By Tim) Research in Motion, Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) is scheduled to release the company's 4th quarter and year on March 31, 2010. The quarter ended on February 27, 2010. Research in Motion is based in Ontario, Canada and is the manufacturer and service provider of the Blackberry line of smartphones and mobile e-mail devices. RIMM conference calls are usually held after market close on the day of the earnings press release.
Research in Motion is a world leader in the mobile communications
market and has a history of developing breakthrough wireless solutions.
RIM''s portfolio of award-winning products, services and embedded
technologies are used by thousands of organizations around the world
and include the BlackBerry wireless platform, the RIM Wireless Handheld
product line, software development tools, radio-modems and
software/hardware licensing agreements.
The consensus, projected earnings for the quarter are $1.27 per share on projected revenues of $4.3 billion. With 45 analysts covering the stock, the estimates are in a very tight range of $1.22 to $1.32 and the sales estimates vary from $4.2 billion to $4.5 billion. For the same quarter of FY 2009, RIMM earned $0.90 on revenues of $3.46 billion. That works out to a 25% revenue gain and a 40% gain in earnings if the numbers come in as forecast. Nice job in the current economic climate!
For the previous four quarters of earnings RIMM has come in pretty close to the consensus, but managed to beat the expected earnings by 3¢ to 6¢ each quarter. It helps that Research in Motion provides guidance for the next quarters revenues and earnings. In the 3rd quarter press release, company management forecast revenues of $4.2 to $4.4 billion and net income of $1.23 to $1.31 per share. It is alway good to see the Wall Street analysts do their own research and go out on a limb with their forecasts!
RIMM is the top seller of smartphones, its platforms hold a 43% share of the 42 million smartphones in use in the U.S. The total smartphone market grew at an 18% rate in 2009. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is the top competitor with a 25% share. Microsoft, Google and Palm are the remaining players. Google has been increasing share with phones using the company's Android OS while Microsoft and Palm were losing ground in the 4th quarter of 2009. According to Deutsche Bank via TechCrunch, RIMM earns over a third of the total cell phone handset industry profits.
For the 3rd quarter, Research in Motion shipped a company record 10 million smartphones and signed up 4.4 million new service accounts. Management's projections for the 4th quarter were the addition of 4.4 to 4.7 million new accounts. RIMM has the opportunity to benefit from the global growth in smartphones. The company now offers its phones and service to 80% of the international market compared to about half that penetration for Apple.
Research in Motion put out sales and earnings guidance that the Wall Street analysts parrot, then the company goes out and beats its own forecast by a few cents per share. Do not expect any fireworks this quarter either.
