BlackBerry (BB.TO)

(Market Call Minute.) World leading technology that lost focus and is still re-imagining itself, but it is going to be awhile.

(Market Call Minute.) Prefers companies like Apple (AAPL-Q) that are growing.

It is suffering in the last cycle the way Nokia and Motorola suffered. BB-T never really got into the consumer side of things. He prefers AAPL-Q. The company is in more of a turnaround mode. They report tomorrow before market open.

It is not a Nortel disaster, which was smoke, mirrors and a lot of accounting. BB-T has stabilized their product, an android phone, with good reviews. They will never be a dominant force in the phone world again, but they have the resources to carry their own, however. He wonders where the earnings will come from down the road and he is not sure how long it will be. He admires management for stabilizing the company. They need to become more of a software company and less of a hardware company. Let the Chinese make the hardware and participate in developing the next cell phone the people are going to want to have.

Thought there would be a takeover at a higher price, but it didn’t happen. Thinks the CEO, John Chen, is overpaid, but at the same time he knows what he is doing and has been hitting his targets. There is a good chance that at some point this company might burst out. A very volatile stock. His target price is $17+.

Despite a lot of negativity, this continues to survive. The security aspects are underrated, and more attention should be paid to that. Chart shows it has been flat lining for a number of years, and maybe that is going to be its future. Thinks it will survive, and maybe grow again. Wouldn’t buy at this time as it is a risky proposition.

(Top Pick Dec 21/15, Down 18.69%) We have a large descending triangle from ’09 and then we are building another descending triangle. We broke out of it in December. It then traded down. It would be impacted by Canadian currency. But he thinks it is okay because we put in a low that is holding up.

Thinks John Chen is way overpaid, but also thinks he is a good operator. Has been hitting the goals that he set. Has this as a Hold in his portfolio. His initial Sell target is $17+.

There are better technology companies you could own. This really comes down to how quickly they can get their software out there. Their hardware products are the best, but they have been declining quarter after quarter. The hard part with this company is that the previous hardware devices came with a little bit of a service sweetener, and every time the number of hardware products goes down, the sweetener goes down too, which is almost a double edged sword for the company.

Their last numbers show that their software did okay. Thinks it is a turnaround story. Would like to see the numbers on their new phone. In a difficult environment in that they are competing with companies like Samsung and Apple, which dominate the market on the phone side. Wouldn’t own the stock at this price.

It looks like there is potential for upside. It has been in the radar lately and not doing as poorly as most people thought.

Thinks it is a beneficiary of ‘Guns over Butter’. Security is one of their specialties. It is trading heavier in New York. The stock has been going up in advance of good news with recent releases. BB-T is catching up very rapidly to its peers. It looks good on a relative basis and it is in the right sector. Also, it is badly out of favour right now.

To him this is a business tool. The iPhone is a great all-purpose tool and a great way to communicate with family, but as a business tool Blackberry is still the best. Wouldn’t be a buyer of the stock because there are just too many uncertainties.

This is the time of the year when technology does well, but it is hard when an individual stock like this, as a niche, feeling it is going to have an impact. Technically there has been a little bit of a break out, and the stock has held at the key level of around $6, so that is a positive trend. Technically and seasonally this actually looks good.

This is just floating around his calculation of the Book Value. Until it has a positive transit somewhere down the road, which to him would be $11.46 Cdn, he doesn’t see any sense in owning it.