BlackBerry Cool

Piper Jaffray raised Research in Motion’s stock price target to $77 from $75, as well as its earnings and revenue forecasts, as near-term subscriber growth trends have improved. Analyst T. Michael Walkley now expects fiscal 2006 earnings of $2.50 a share, up from prior estimates of $2.41. His revenue forecast was raised to $2.02 billion from $1.95 billion. Meanwhile, Walkley feels growth rates will slow as the maker of mobile email devices faces increasing competition, including Microsoft , which could pressure average selling prices and overall revenue per subscriber. The stock was last up 51 cents at $96.26 in Instinet pre-open trading.