RIM Raised to Hold at Needham; Price Target Cut to $77

Faint praise seems the order of the day when dipping into depressed stock prices. Needham & Co.’s Charlie Wolf this morning upgraded shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) from “Underperform” to “Hold,” writing that the fall in price from $105 in July to $60 and change today fairly reflects potential for slowing of sales of BlackBerrys to consumers in the quarter ending next month. (Remember that RIM shares traded at $130 as recently as August.) Wolf says sales of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone appear to be “materially higher than initial forecasts” and so couches RIM’s problems in the context of Apple’s encroachments on the smartphone business.

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