BlackBerry is finally starting to look like a real software company.

After three years of acquisitions, layoffs and trying to convince customers it could do more than build smartphones, the Canadian company’s software revenue and profit margins are growing in the way Chief Executive Officer John Chen wants them to. The stock too: It rose the most in 15 months.

BlackBerry surpassed its target of $640 million in software revenue for fiscal 2017, achieving Chen’s goal of increasing sales from that division by 30 per cent in the year. It posted profit of 4 cents a share, beating out the highest estimate from analysts, and said it would be profitable for its entire fiscal 2018, which began this month. Gross margins were around 60pc, the company said in a statement Friday. BlackBerry expects to achieve margins of 70pc for fiscal 2018, Chief Financial Officer Steve Capelli said on a call with analysts.

BlackBerry surged as much as 13pc to $7.82. It was the biggest intraday gain since December 2015. The stock was trading at $12.23 at 9:38 am in New York.

BlackBerry shed the burden of its ever-shrinking phone business by officially outsourcing all device design, production and sales to other companies last year – a move that won’t see dividends until the products actually start selling later this year. The firm has also been developing software for self-driving automobiles and has a formal partnership with Ford involving in-car connectivity. Earlier this week, Ford agreed to hire 400 of BlackBerry’s mobile tech experts to work on connected cars.

Now the challenge is selling BlackBerry’s suite of security-focused software products, which range from tools that help companies track their employees’ mobile devices to computer operating systems for guided missiles. Chen said on the call that BlackBerry is starting to attract companies beyond its core client base in financial services, healthcare and government. BlackBerry sees 13pc to 15pc growth this fiscal year in software and services, at the upper end of the market rate, he said.

That expansion will come from “a combination of some current and existing products which we’re proud of and some new stuff coming online,” he said. “Not everything will work, but I think we’ll get enough iron in the fire, and the combination makes us feel comfortable we will grow at these numbers.”

In the fiscal fourth quarter, revenue was $297m, beating the average estimate of $289m. Software revenue was $182m, 80pc of which was recurring and not due to one-time licensing deals. BlackBerry’s cash balance increased, a key milestone after months of burning money, to $1.7 billion.

“They’ve taken a lot of costs out of the business and are reinvesting those proceeds back in software, which is good to see,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman said. “Now that they’re going to keep investing in new products, they’ll be able to stay ahead, be able to prevent the latest threats, and ultimately in the longer-term, sustain even faster growth.”

Bloomberg-The Washington Post Service

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2017