UPDATE: Societe Generale Downgrades BlackBerry to Hold Following Disappointing Results

In a report published Monday, Societe Generale analyst Andy Perkins downgraded the rating on BlackBerry BBRY from Buy to Hold, but reiterated the $11.50 price target. In the report, Societe Generale noted, “RIM announced an extremely disappointing set of results last Friday. Unit sales were 6.8m (consensus 7.5m) with revenues of $3.1bn (consensus $3.4bn). Gross margins were 34% (consensus 39%) and EPS was a loss of $0.03 (excluding $0.10 FX impact from Venezuela foreign exchange restrictions) against expectations of a profit of $0.08. RIM sold 2.7m new BB10 handsets but below expectations of over 3m. Net cash increased by almost $200m during the quarter, primarily due to the receipt of a tax repayment which may have contributed over $550m. Management stated that it could not give any future guidance as market conditions are ‘highly competitive'. RIM also announced that it was dropping the Playbook tablet computer to focus on its core operations.” BlackBerry closed on Friday at $10.46.