BlackBerry beats profit estimates as software business steadies

(Reuters) - Canada's BlackBerry Ltd beat adjusted profit estimates for the fourteenth straight quarter, helped by higher margins on software and services sales.

The company, which reinvented itself after customers ditched its smartphones for Apple's iPhones and Android devices, said revenue from its enterprise software and services business came in at $108 million, up from $91 million last year.

Gross margins rose to 76 percent in the quarter from 60.1 percent last year.

Excluding one-time items, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company earned 5 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected the company to break even, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net loss narrowed to $10 million, or 6 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Feb. 28, from $47 million, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier.

The company's revenue fell 18.5 percent to $233 million.

U.S. listed shares of the company were up 7 percent at $13.25 Wednesday before markets opened.

(Reporting by Taenaz Shakir in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)