Monday December 24 2007 - In the News

The Vancouver Sun reports in its Saturday edition that Research in Motion shares surged on Friday, a day after the company announced third-quarter financial results that blew past expectations. CanWest's Derek Abma writes the BlackBerry maker's stock closed up $11.05 at $118.77 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. On Thursday, RIM announced third-quarter earnings of $370.5-million (U.S.) on revenue of $1.67-billion (U.S.). Both figures were about double year-earlier values, and beat analyst expectations of $351-million (U.S.) for profit and $1.65-billion (U.S.) for revenue. RIM has its detractors in stock-analyst circles. Sera Kim from Raymond James in Toronto is not one of them. She said RIM is in a fast-growing market segment of mobile handsets -- and growing market share in it. "Frankly, I think that there's a lot more growth to come," she said. "RIM is one of those companies that's firing on all cylinders. Revenues have doubled in the last year. So has earnings. I think you can expect growth to continue." Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek is also bullish on RIM. "We see upside to $145 and don't feel it is overvalued or bubble-like," he said. "Very profitable." The consumer market will push growth.