Credit Suisse has just issued upgrades on Research in Motion Limited ( RIMM ) and Motorola ( MOT ), bringing them from Neutral to Outperform. Both price targets got elevated a lot, MOT’s price raising from $7 to $9.50, while RIMM’s price is now $95 from $76.
But this isn’t all, because Motorola and RIM’s competitor’s have been downgraded, meaning QUALCOMM ( QCOM ) and Alcatel-Lucent ( ALU ) are now Neutral. Motorola’s upgrade came as a big surprise and it will probably not be able to hit the $9.5 price.
Kulbinder Garcha, a Credit Suisse analyst, believes that there will be 176 million smart phones sold this year and 223 million next year. His old estimate was at 158 million for 2009 and 187 million for 2010. Considering RIMM holds a 19-20% global market share of the smart phones market, it will be a direct beneficiary, according to Garcha.
Garcha also believes that Research in Motion Limited’s market in currently under penetrated, Blackberry being a corporate smart phone, which puts more trust in RIM’s back yard. RIMM has gone up today to $75.40, by $2.34 / 3.2%.
