Research in Motion (RIMM) Gets a New Fan; Jefferies Upgrades to Buy, Sees 36% Upside

Shares of Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) are getting a boost in pre-open trading today after Jefferies & Co upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy and boosted their price target from $55 to $80.

Analyst Peter Misek said, "We believe QNX will be a viable platform for carriers & developers and a contender in the OS wars." Misek also said international growth will carry RIMM until the new QNX products launch and that enterprise share loss will likely be slower than the Wall Street fears.

The firm also raised EPS estimates above the consensus, moving FY12 to $6.74 versus the consensus of $6.31.

Commenting on QNX, Misek said, "our checks indicate that the new OS provides a great browsing experience, is scalable so can address low end and high end, is easy to port Android apps to, and is more secure, and requires less bandwidth. Also, the transition to QNX will be faster than expected."

The firm's new $80 price target represents 36 percent upside to yesterday's close.

Shares of RIM are up 1.76 percent to $60.03 in pre-open trading.

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