BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX:BB) delivered another loss in the first quarter as the company struggled to sell its smartphones, but investors appeared pleased with some of the headway made with its turnaround effort.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based company says it managed to grow its software licencing revenue by 150%.
That appeared to be a bright spot in an earnings report which showed other areas of weakness.
BlackBerry posted an adjusted loss of $28 million U.S. or five cents per share, which compared with expectations of a three-cent per share loss, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
Revenues of $658 million U.S. were also softer than the $679 million U.S. analysts anticipated. Total revenue was down from US$966 million a year earlier, but about steady with the previous quarter ended Feb. 28.
Growth of software revenues to $137 million U.S. — about one-fifth of the total in the quarter ended May 30 — appeared to overshadow some of the problems with BlackBerry's hardware business.
Missing from the initial financial results was much insight into how the recent launches of the BlackBerry Passport and Classic phones have fared when it came to sales.
The company recognized revenue on 1.1 million BlackBerry smartphones during the period, it said.
Chief executive John Chen has been focused on transitioning the company away from handset revenues and towards sales in its software business, but the process is dragging on and testing the patience of some investors.
The company's share price has fallen about 11% on the TSX since the start of the year. The stock opened Tuesday at $11.13 Canadian on the Toronto market, down 19 cents, or 1.7%, from Monday's close, and down from $12.74 on Jan. 2.
The company has traded in a 52-week range of $9.50 to $15.10.
The company once known as Research In Motion is also scheduled to hold its annual meeting on Tuesday morning in Waterloo.
