Research in Motion Struggles Continue; Stock Drops Further After-Hours

Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) continues to struggle, and the company's stock is taking a hit in after-hours trading on Thursday, down 7 percent, or $1.08 to $14.10.

The dip in after-hours trading pushed RIM's stock to its 52-week low.

The Canada-based maker of the BlackBerry smartphone said after the market closed Thursday its third quarter profit dropped 27 percent. The company also noted sales of its BlackBerry smartphones would drop around Christmas.

RIM showed a profit in the quarter, ending November 26. RIM earned an adjusted profit of $667 million, or $1.27 a share. But that figure does not include, according to Reuters, a large write down on unsold PlayBook tablets or charges associated with the company's global services outage.

RIM had revenue of $5.2 billion in the third quarter. Analysts were expecting RIM to earn $1.19 per share on sales of $5.65 billion. The company had warned on Dec. 2 that its earning and revenue would be lower than previous expectations.

But it wasn't the results spooking investors. RIM's guidance is what's troubling the market in after-hours trading, as the company said it sees lower revenue in the fourth quarter than analysts have been expecting, with further declines in shipments. In the fourth quarter, RIM expects revenue of $4.6 billion to $4.9 billion -- down 8.7 percent from the same period one year ago and below Wall Street estimates.

RIM said in a statement it is more determined that ever to capitalize on our strengths to overcome the recent execution challenges surrounding product launches and the resulting financial performance.