Reuter site - BlackBerry shares slide on Goldman downgrade

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BlackBerry shares slide on Goldman downgrade

Mon, Mar 25 08:41 AM EDT

TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry stock fell nearly 4 percent on Monday after Goldman Sachs cut its rating, citing a disappointing U.S. launch for the smartphone maker's new touchscreen device that went on sale in the United States on Friday.

"Our retail checks at over 20 store locations since March 22, including at AT&T, Best Buy, and RadioShack, revealed a surprising lack of marketing support and poor positioning of the product," Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski said in a note to clients on Monday.

Jankowski also said advertising of the product launch was limited.

"As a result, despite the product itself being relatively well received by sales associates and online reviews, sell-through at most locations was less than 10 per day," said Jankowski.

The brokerage firm cut its rating on shares of BlackBerry to "neutral" from "buy."

BlackBerry shares were down 3.9 percent at $14.33 in trading before the morning bell in the United States.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)