New York: Blackberry reported an adjusted profit for its fiscal third quarter, surprising Wall Street.
The Canadian company's stock climbed almost 3 percent in Friday premarket trading.
For the period ended November 29, the company lost $148 million, or 28 cents per share.
That compares with a loss of $4.4 billion, or $8.37 per share, a year earlier. Stripping out some charges, earnings were a penny per share.
Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research predicted a loss of 6 cents per share.
Revenue declined to $793 million from $1.19 billion. Analysts were looking for $927.8 million, according to Zacks.
Blackberry Ltd. said that it continues to target sustainable adjusted profitability some time in fiscal 2016.
Revenue disappoints
BlackBerry Ltd on Friday reported positive cash flow, but shares fell as revenue declined more than expected.
BlackBerry's Nasdaq-listed shares fell 5.6 percent to $9.50 in premarket trading.
Cash flow was positive $43 million in the third quarter, while the company had negative cash flow of $36 million in the second quarter.
BlackBerry had said it was targeting break-even cash flow by the end of the fiscal year in February 2015.
Colin Gillis, tech analyst at BGC Partners in New York, said BlackBerry Chief Executive Officer John Chen did a good job controlling expenses to boost the company's cash pile.
"The fact that is he overachieved by turning cash flow positive this quarter. That's a great milestone," said Gillis. "It gets easier from here."
Excluding a one-time non-cash debenture charge and restructuring charges, the company reported a profit of 1 cent a share.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expected a loss of 5 cents.
BlackBerry launched its long-awaited Classic smartphone on Wednesday, hoping to help win back market share and woo customers still using older versions of its physical keyboard devices. The phone resembles its once wildly popular Bold and Curve handsets.
(Reporting by Euan Rocha, Allison Martell, Jeffrey Hodgson and Alastair Sharp; Editing by W Simon and J Benkoe)
