BlackBerry stock falls after Goldman downgrade, ‘tepid’ Z10 sales
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It has a new phone, new technology, even a new stock ticker symbol. But the blows keep coming for BlackBerry.
The smartphone maker’s stock price tumbled Monday after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its rating on the company, citing an underwhelming debut of the new BlackBerry Z10 mobile phone.
BlackBerry shares were down about 4% in early trading Monday, after falling nearly 8% on Friday. Before the two-day decline, optimism about the company’s new phone had driven its shares up 36% for the year.
The sleek Z10 went on sale last week in the United States, almost two months after it debuted in the United Kingdom and Canada. Goldman has not been impressed with early sales.
“Our retail checks at over 20 store locations since March 22, including at AT&T;, Best Buy and RadioShack, revealed a surprising lack of marketing support and poor positioning of the product,” Goldman analyst Simona Jankowski said in a research report. “We also saw limited advertising around the launch.”
She had one word to describe sales of the new BlackBerry: “tepid.”
Jankowski downgraded the stock to neutral.
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