BlackBerry posts smaller-than-expected adjusted loss, shrs surge

TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd reported a smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss on Thursday, as the smartphone company's cost cutting and other initiatives started to pay off.

Shares jumped 10 percent in trading before the bell after BlackBerry said its gross profit margin in the quarter rose to 46.7 percent, from 33.9 percent a year earlier.

"The numbers certainly aren't great, but they could have been much worse," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company reported net income of $23 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a loss of $84 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding a one-time non-cash accounting gain and certain restructuring charges, the loss was $60 million, or 11 cents a share. Analysts, on average, had expected a loss of 25 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Quarterly revenue dropped to $966 million from $3.07 billion a year earlier.

The company's cash rose to $3.1 billion from $2.7 billion on a sequential basis, helped by gains from the sale of real estate assets and a tax refund.

BlackBerry's Nasdaq-listed shares rose 9.8 percent to $9.10 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Allison Martell, Euan Rocha and Alastair Sharp, Editing by Franklin Paul and Sofina Mirza-Reid)