Not long ago BlackBerry was all but left for dead. Shares shed 36.5% in value last year with many believing the best the former smartphone king could hope for was to be sold for parts. The company's financial situation still isn't pretty, but shares are up more than 18% so far in 2014. And the stock's post-earnings pop Friday shows new hope among investors.
For the fourth quarter, BlackBerry reported $976 million in revenue, down 64% from the same period during the prior year. Services made up 56% of the phone maker's sales, 37% came from hardware and 7% came from software. The company reported a $423 million net loss, or an 80 cent loss per share.
Despite the steep loss, shares popped at one point more than 4% to $9.43 in pre-market trading thanks to a lighter than anticipated non-GAAP loss per share. Wall Street analysts were expecting a non-GAAP loss of 55 cents per share, but excluding several one time charges the company reported just an 8 cent non-GAAP loss.
"I am very pleased with our progress and execution in fiscal Q4 against the strategy we laid out three months ago. We have significantly streamlined operations, allowing us to reach our expense reduction target one quarter ahead of schedule," said CEO John Chen in a statement. "BlackBerry is on sounder financial footing today with a path to returning to growth and profitability."
For the full fiscal 2014 year, BlackBerry reported $6.8 billion in revenue, down from $11.1 billion in the year prior. On a GAAP basis the company had a $5.9 billion net loss, or $11.18 per share.
Looking ahead the company simply noted that it "anticipates maintaining its strong cash position and continuing to look for opportunities to streamline operations. The Company is targeting break even cash flow results by the end of fiscal 2015." In the fourth quarter BlackBerry used $553 million in cash flow for operations, and $243 million investing activities. As of March 1, 2014 the company has $1.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
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