- Short-seller Citron Research, the bane of many a growth stock investor, considers BlackBerry (BBRY +4.6%) an unappreciated value play.
- Citron highlights new chairman/CEO John Chen's success at turning around Sybase (sold for $5.2B to SAP), and declares his early moves - the Foxconn deal, focusing on enterprise software/services - have "significantly de-risked BlackBerry's balance sheet."
- The firm also considers BES 10 to be well-positioned in a fast-growing mobile device management (MDM) software market - it points out BES 10's Google Play rating (4.0/5) beats that of rivals Good Technologies, AirWatch, and MobileIron - and that government support remains healthy due to BlackBerry's security expertise.
- Also mentioned: The value of BlackBerry's patent portfolio; the popularity of the QNX OS in the automotive market (200+ vehicle wins); BBM's growth since arriving on Android and iOS; and a 36M-share drop in short interest from Dec. 15 to Dec. 31 to 107M (suggests a short-squeeze is in play).
- Citron's report (.pdf)