BlackBerry Beat Its Own Guidance by $15 Million, and Cut Its Secure Communications Outlook
BlackBerry reported second quarter fiscal 2027 results before the open on Thursday, September 24, 2026, and cleared both of the bars in front of it. Revenue of $163.3 million came in 12.2% above the $145.5 million analyst consensus, and adjusted basic earnings of $0.07 per share beat the $0.04 analysts were carrying. The harder bar was the company’s own. Guidance issued in June called for $137 million to $148 million of revenue for this quarter, so the result landed $15.3 million above the top of the band, not the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA of $47.0 million cleared its own band by $17.0 million. Every company figure in this article is in US dollars.
The tape took the whole session to make up its mind. BlackBerry opened at $11.89 CAD on the Toronto listing, against Wednesday’s close of $11.84 CAD, sold off to $11.22 CAD at the low, then recovered through the afternoon to finish at $12.27 CAD, up 3.63% on the day. The New York line traced the same path in US dollars, bottoming at $7.93 USD before closing at $8.73 USD, up 4.18% from $8.38 USD. Low to high the stock covered more than 10% of the prior close, which makes the closing gain look mild next to the swing that produced it.
A note on the two currencies before going further. BlackBerry reports in US dollars, but the shares we follow trade in Canadian dollars on the Toronto listing, which closed at $11.84 CAD on September 23, after giving back 2.31% from the prior session’s close of $12.12 CAD. The New York line closed at $8.38 USD the same day. One piece of history is worth holding lightly, and it is worth holding lightly because it just broke: each of the last eight BlackBerry reports moved the stock at least 8.22% in the following session, six up and two down, with none quiet. That record is measured on the New York listing in US dollars, and today’s 4.18% is barely half the smallest of those eight, the quietest response to a BlackBerry report in nine quarters. The stock also went into this one already marked up, having risen 7% on Monday on no company news at all, three sessions before the release.
The quarter itself
Revenue of $163.3 million was up 26% from $129.6 million a year ago, per the Q2 fiscal 2027 earnings release filed as Exhibit 99.1 to the company’s Form 8-K. Adjusted gross margin reached 78.2%, three points better than last year, and GAAP operating income of $33.6 million compared with $11.5 million. GAAP net income of $33.9 million against $13.3 million marked the sixth straight positive quarter. Operating cash flow of $29.3 million compared with $3.4 million a year ago, and cash and investments finished at $447.1 million against $432.4 million at the February 28, 2026 year end.
On the company’s own Rule of 40 definition, GAAP revenue growth of 26% plus an adjusted EBITDA margin of 28.8% gives 54.8, which the release calls the second consecutive quarter of clearing it.
Note the two different earnings numbers. GAAP basic EPS was $0.06 and GAAP diluted EPS $0.05, while adjusted basic EPS was $0.07. The gap between a GAAP figure and an adjusted one, and the difference between a band a company sets for itself and a consensus assembled from analysts, are the two distinctions that decide whether a headline like this one means anything. Our guide on how to read a company’s numbers walks through both.
Here is the full scorecard against the company’s own June guidance:
| Q2 FY2027 line | Company guidance | Actual | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | $137M to $148M | $163.3M | $15.3M above the top |
| QNX revenue | $70M to $75M | $80.3M | $5.3M above the top |
| Secure Communications revenue | $57M to $63M | $60.9M | inside the band |
| Licensing revenue | approximately $10M | $22.1M | more than double |
| Adjusted EBITDA | $20M to $30M | $47.0M | $17.0M above the top |
| Non-GAAP basic EPS | $0.03 to $0.04 | $0.07 | $0.03 above the top |
| Operating cash flow | breakeven to $10M | $29.3M | $19.3M above the top |
Consensus sat between those two poles. Analysts were at $145.5 million of revenue and $0.04 of adjusted EPS, with a mean price target of $9.71 USD across seven analysts and a consensus rating of hold (Yahoo Finance, recorded September 22). That was the setup we laid out in our preview of this quarter, where the question was whether QNX could carry a quarter on its own.
Where the beat actually came from
It could not, quite. Against the midpoint of the company’s own revenue band, $142.5 million, the quarter came in $20.8 million high. Split against each segment’s own guidance midpoint, the shape is narrower than the headline:
| Segment | Guidance midpoint | Actual | Contribution to the $20.8M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licensing | $10.0M | $22.1M | +$12.1M, 58.2% |
| QNX | $72.5M | $80.3M | +$7.8M, 37.5% |
| Secure Communications | $60.0M | $60.9M | +$0.9M, 4.3% |
So 58.2% of the beat over the company’s own midpoint came from Licensing, a patent business that produced $22.1 million of revenue and $20.0 million of segment adjusted EBITDA, a 90.5% segment margin. On 13.5% of revenue it delivered 42.6% of total adjusted EBITDA. That is enormous operating leverage, and it is not a run rate.
BlackBerry says as much in its own guidance. Licensing produced $29.1 million in the first half, full year guidance is approximately $41 million, and third quarter guidance is approximately $6 million. That leaves roughly $11.9 million across the back half, or about $6 million in each of the third and fourth quarters. Which is why third quarter revenue guidance of $143 million to $154 million sits below what the company just reported: the $148.5 million midpoint is 9.1% under the $163.3 million it delivered. A reader who takes “revenue up 26%” and stops there will misread the next quarter.
The outlook revision, and the half nobody leads with
The full year raise is real. Fiscal 2027, which ends February 28, 2027, now carries higher revenue, EBITDA, EPS and cash flow guidance than the band set in the Q1 fiscal 2027 release in June. But the raise is not spread evenly.
| FY2027 line | June 25 outlook | September 24 outlook | Midpoint change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | $594M to $621M | $616M to $636M | +$18.5M |
| QNX revenue | $295M to $312M | $315M to $325M | +$16.5M |
| Secure Communications revenue | $270M to $280M | $260M to $270M | -$10.0M |
| Licensing revenue | approximately $29M | approximately $41M | +$12.0M |
| Total adjusted EBITDA | $119M to $139M | $141M to $158M | +$20.5M |
| QNX segment adjusted EBITDA | $74M to $86M | $95M to $105M | +$20.0M |
| Secure Comms segment adjusted EBITDA | $57M to $65M | $50M to $58M | -$7.0M |
| Licensing segment adjusted EBITDA | approximately $25M | approximately $36M | +$11.0M |
| Non-GAAP basic EPS | $0.16 to $0.20 | $0.19 to $0.22 | +$0.025 |
| Operating cash flow | approximately $100M | approximately $115M | +$15M |
Every dollar of the raise is QNX and Licensing. Secure Communications went the other way: $10 million off the full year revenue outlook at the midpoint, and $7 million off its segment EBITDA outlook.
Secure Communications is where the strain shows
The segment grew 2% in the quarter, to $60.9 million from $59.9 million, landing inside its guidance band. Underneath that, segment adjusted gross margin fell five points to 61%, and segment adjusted EBITDA fell 18% to $8.0 million from $9.7 million, a 13% margin. Annual recurring revenue rose 3.8% to $221 million from $213 million, while the dollar based net retention rate slipped to 91% from 93%. That second number is the one to sit with. Below 100% means the existing customer base spent less than it did a year ago, so any growth has to come from new customers before it shows up as growth at all.
Chief executive John J. Giamatteo framed it this way in the release: “Secure Communications remained a stable and profitable contributor following a particularly strong first quarter.” The full year cut to both the revenue and the segment EBITDA outlook suggests stable is carrying a lot of weight in that sentence.
QNX, and the backlog figure that is not there
QNX is the other half of the story and it is a genuinely good one. Revenue of $80.3 million grew 27%, segment adjusted gross margin reached 87% (four points better), and segment adjusted EBITDA of $29.0 million grew 41% for a 36% margin, even as segment research and development spending rose $6.6 million to $19.6 million. Third quarter QNX guidance of $82 million to $88 million sits above what it just delivered, and the full year QNX segment EBITDA midpoint moved from $80 million to $100 million.
What the release does not carry is a new total QNX royalty backlog number, and that is expected rather than evasive. BlackBerry calculates the backlog annually, which is the point our piece on the Coretura design win made when the company said that win alone “adds over $100 million to the QNX royalty backlog” and called it “the largest design win in QNX history”. Coretura is the joint venture between Volvo Group and Daimler Truck.
The release also names Momenta and XHEART selecting QNX OS for Safety, built on SDP 8.0, for a production ready Physical AI autonomous driving platform certified to ISO 26262 ASIL D, alongside new support for the Hailo-8 AI Accelerator. Readers working out which listed names in this country actually book revenue from work of that kind can compare our ranking of Canadian AI stocks, which scores companies on measured AI exposure rather than on mentions in an earnings call.
What to watch next
The company’s own third quarter numbers are the cleanest test available. Revenue guidance of $143 million to $154 million with Licensing at approximately $6 million means QNX at $82 million to $88 million and Secure Communications at $55 million to $60 million have to carry the quarter without a patent windfall behind them. Total adjusted EBITDA guidance of $28 million to $37 million, against the $47.0 million just reported, is where that shows up. If Secure Communications lands in the upper half of its band and net retention moves back toward 100%, the cut to the full year outlook reads as conservatism. If it does not, the segment is shrinking while QNX grows around it, and the reported total keeps obscuring which is which.
Disclaimer: The content on bestcanadianstocks.ca is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Company financials, segment results and guidance from BlackBerry’s Q2 fiscal 2027 earnings release (Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed September 24, 2026) and its Q1 fiscal 2027 earnings release (Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed June 25, 2026), both filed with the SEC. All company figures are US dollars. Share prices are from Yahoo Finance, closing session of Thursday September 24, 2026, on the Toronto listing in Canadian dollars unless labelled USD for the New York listing. Post-report reaction history is our computation from Yahoo Finance daily closes on the New York listing. Analyst consensus figures are from Yahoo Finance, recorded September 22, 2026.
