Shares in BlackBerry Ltd. surged in late trading today after the Canadian software company smashed earnings and revenue estimates in its most recent quarter.

For its fiscal first quarter that ended May 31, BlackBerry reported earnings before costs such as stock compensation of six cents per share on revenue of $373 million, the latter up 122% year-over-year. Analysts were expecting an adjusted loss, as opposed to a profit of six cents on revenue of $156.93 million.

By sector, BlackBerry saw its Internet of Thing revenue come in at $45 million, cybersecurity revenue of $122 million and licensing and other revenue of $235 million. The “other revenue” figure was high thanks to BlackBerry raising $218 million through the sale of some of its patents.

The patent aside, BlackBerry’s fundamentals were still solid, with a non-GAAP operating profit of $35 million in the quarter and the company had $579 million in cash, cash equivalents and long-term investments on hand as of the end of May.

Highlights in the quarter included the integration of CylanceGUARD with secure critical event management powered by BlackBerry AtHoc. The integration allows those with limited information technology resources and a CylanceGUARD subscription to gain access to services previously available only to large, well-resourced entities.

Because it’s 2023, BlackBerry also launched an artificial intelligence-based version of its Cylance cybersecurity solutions portfolio. The addition of AI is said to reduce alert fatigue and offers faster incident response and expand cloud defense coverage.

“This quarter we delivered sequential revenue growth in our Cybersecurity business unit,” John Chen, executive chair and chief executive officer of BlackBerry, said in the company’s earnings release. “Revenue growth was driven by a year-over-year increase in billings and pipeline, anchored on strength in our core verticals, particularly government.”

BlackBerry did not disclose its outlook in its general release and planned to do so in an investor call. Notes from the investor call were not immediately available.

The company’s overall figures were skewed by its ongoing sale of nonessential patents: The sale, announced in March, is being paid in installments. In the quarter, BlackBerry saw the first installment from the sale, which, when complete, will see BlackBerry book $900 million in payments from Key Patent Innovations Ltd.

That patent sale aside, BlackBerry still reported solid figures and investors noticed. Shares in BlackBerry rose just shy of 12% in after-hours trading.

Photo: BlackBerry