Barclays Downgrades RIM (RIMM) as Issues with BB7, PlayBook 2.0 Delays Will Weigh

Shares of Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) are lower Tuesday afternoon amid an earlier upgrade from Barclays' Jeff Kvaal. The stock last traded at $18.61, down about 1.5 percent from Monday's closing price. Notably, the S&P 500 is currently down about 0.05 percent.

Kvaal now rates RIM shares an Equalweight, down from Overweight previously (the analyst had the equivalent of a buy rating on Research In Motion shares since February of 2004). Kvaal slashed his price target on the stock by nearly 43 percent from $40 to $23.

The Barclays analyst expects Research In Motion to continue to lose market share in the US while growth in international markets is hampered by issues with the launch of the company's new operating system, BlackBerry 7. "While near-term BB7 demand looks healthy, an uneven BBX/QNX migration including delays in Playbook 2.0 and likely pushout of BBX smartphones to mid 2012, is likely to prevent RIM from shaking its low multiple," Kvaal said.

Track all the market-moving analyst calls on shares of RIM with our Analyst Ratings page.

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