When trying to build long-term wealth, Foolish Investors should focus on companies that don’t just survive but keep evolving. Many businesses start strong but fail to adapt, while others continue reinventing themselves and seizing new opportunities. If I could only buy and hold one stock, it would have to be a company with vision and the ability to dominate futuristic trends.
After considering all the options, one top Canadian stock stands above the rest. It’s a company that transformed itself from a legacy tech player into a bigger player in enterprise cybersecurity and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions. A stock that I expect to thrive in the coming years with its key focus on digital solutions for various industries. The stock is BlackBerry (TSX:BB).
Before I tell you why I find it one of the most attractive stocks in my portfolio, let’s quickly review a recent shift in its growth strategy.
What the Cylance sale means for BlackBerry’s future growth
BlackBerry recently decided to sell its Cylance business to the American cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf, marking a big pivot in its growth strategy. If you don’t know it already, Cylance was BlackBerry’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven cybersecurity unit, which could help businesses remain protected by predicting cyber threats in advance. However, BlackBerry has now decided to step back from directly managing this segment and instead focus on areas where it sees stronger long-term potential.
By selling Cylance, BlackBerry is streamlining its operations to prioritize high-growth sectors like IoT and secure communications. But this doesn’t mean the company is completely abandoning cybersecurity altogether. Through a reseller agreement with Arctic Wolf, BlackBerry still has access to Cylance’s technology, which allows it to offer AI-driven security solutions to its enterprise and government clients without the overhead of running the business itself. This shift could give the Waterloo-based tech firm more financial flexibility and a sharper focus on its core strengths.
What makes BlackBerry stock worth considering for the long term
BlackBerry has been on a roll lately, having jumped by 117% over the last six months to currently trade at $6.61 per share with a market cap of $3.9 billion. Besides other factors, its decision to sell the Cylance business has also helped it regain investor confidence. Instead of spreading itself too thin, BlackBerry is doubling down on its strengths, IoT and secure communications, two areas with massive long-term potential.
In the quarter that ended in November 2024, BlackBerry pulled in $162 million in revenue, with both its cybersecurity and IoT segments exceeding analysts’ expectations. The company’s IoT segment, which included BlackBerry’s QNX software, saw a 13% jump in revenue. Meanwhile, its Cybersecurity division showed signs of stabilizing, posting a 7% revenue growth over the previous quarter.
And BlackBerry isn’t stopping there. The company recently rebranded its IoT division as QNX, reinforcing its leadership in automotive and general embedded industries. With QNX technology already integrated into more than 255 million vehicles globally, this move reflects BlackBerry’s focus on developing advanced AI and machine learning-powered software solutions for software-defined vehicles and mission-critical systems.
As the demand for such advanced tech solutions is likely to skyrocket in the coming years, I expect BlackBerry’s financial growth trends to improve and its stock to soar further.
