Palm Up on AT&T Pact
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (
) --
Palm
(PALM)
swayed in the warm market breezes Thursday as Citi lifted its sell rating and regulatory monitors offered a sunny forecast that called for the Pre to arrive at
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
in May.
Palm shares rose 3% to $9.89 in premarket trading Thursday on the uplifting news.
The move comes after a report Wednesday that showed
Verizon's
(VZ) - Get Report
torpid marketing support of the Pre and Pixi
have made for a lackluster sales debut in the past two weeks.
Palm Pre |
Citi analysts upgraded Palm shares to neutral from sell Thursday. Also helping the bull case were reports that a
Pre phone was under review at the Federal Communications Commission
and scheduled to appear at AT&T on May 10.
Sprint
(S) - Get Report
and Palm introduced the first Pre phone on June 8, just hours before
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
unveiled its latest version of the iPhone. The Pre and its lower-priced sibling, the Pixi, have received critical praise but have failed to gain much popularity with consumers who have a host of touchscreen phones to choose from.
The spread of the iPhone and
Google's
(GOOG) - Get Report
Android devices like the
Motorola
(MOT)
Droid have helped push Palm back in line.
Palm is bleeding red and needs higher sales to turn the ship. Last year, Palm posted a net loss of $452 million on $323 million in sales. Analysts expect Palm to sell about 4 million phones this year -- if it has modest success at Verizon and AT&T.
--Reported by Scott Moritz in New York
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