BlackBerry Ltd posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday, offering signs its turnaround efforts may be beginning to gain traction, but a larger-than-expected drop in revenue gave investors cause for concern. The stock fell 2.5 per cent to $9.07 in premarket Nasdaq trading.

Ontario-based BlackBerry reported net profit of $28 million, or 5 cents a share, in the fourth quarter ended February 28. That compared with a year-earlier loss of $148 million, or 28c a share. Excluding one-time items, quarterly profit was $20 million, or 4c a share. Analysts, on average, expected a loss of 4c a share in the period, according to Thomson Reuters.

Quarterly revenue, however, slid to $660 million from $793 million, and was well below Wall Street expectations of $786.4 million.

In a positive sign, software revenue rose 20 per cent from a year earlier to $67 million. The revenues are a key metric that analysts are looking at this quarter, given the company’s ongoing transition to a more software-driven revenue stream, away from its more traditional hardware- and services-driven model.