Shares of Research in Motion shot up by 10 per cent Friday after the maker of the BlackBerry wireless device reported earnings that topped expectations.
RIM shares gained $11.05 to finish at $117.57 in TSX trading. The stock went as high as $120 in the opening minutes of the trading day. RIM stock has more than doubled this year.
RIM 3-month TSX chart
UBS and JMP Securities raised their price targets for RIM shares, and Bear Stearns upgraded its rating on the stock from "peer perform" to "outperform."
After the market closed Thursday, Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM said its third-quarter profit more than doubled to $370.5 million US (65 cents a share), up from $175.2 million US (31 cents a share) in the same quarter a year ago. RIM reports in U.S. dollars.
The results reassured analysts who had wondered if the turmoil in the financial markets would crimp RIM's business.
"We are pleased to see continuing growth amongst business and government users, with the BlackBerry platform being deployed for a widening range of applications," RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said in a statement. "We are also pleased with the excellent consumer sales results achieved so far in the holiday buying season."
Analysts had been expecting profit of 62 cents a share, on average.
"They keep with the record of always beating the estimates of the street," Nick Bontis, a professor at McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business, told CBC News. "As long as they keep on doing that, RIM will move onward and upward."
The company added another 1.65 million subscribers in the quarter, pushing its total subscriber base to 12 million.
Revenue doubled to $1.67 billion — also slightly above the market's consensus.
For the fourth quarter, RIM is forecasting revenues of $1.80 billion to $1.87 billion and earnings of 66 to 70 cents per share diluted.
It is also anticipating net subscriber account additions of 1.82 million.
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