Blackberry (TSX:BB)(NYSE:BB) stock has climbed 28% over the past three months as of close on January 24. However, shares are still down 16% year over year. In the 2010s, Blackberry stock completed its descent from the late 2000s as it lost its dominant market share in the smart phone space. Things looked bleak until the hiring of turnaround specialist John Chen in late 2013.
The Waterloo-based company has managed to carve out a promising footprint in software. Its strides in the cybersecurity market rightfully turned heads. This is reason enough to bet on Blackberry as it is priced in the single digits to start the 2020s.
According to IDC, a global market intelligence firm, worldwide spending on security solutions will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.2% over the 2018-2022 forecast period and total $133.8 billion in 2022. The United States and China were forecast to be the two largest spending markets in 2019. Discrete manufacturing and federal government spending on security solutions led the way in the U.S. The cybersecurity market has grown by 30 times over the past 13 years.
Blackberry added a major asset to its cybersecurity portfolio with its $1.4 billion of Cylance in November 2018. It recently integrated Cylance to bolster its QNX automated vehicle software technology. Shares of Blackberry hovered around technically oversold territory after the release of its fiscal 2020 third-quarter results in December 2019. Its quarterly adjusted revenue rose 23% which beat estimates.
