RIM shares rose sharply again yesterday after its upcoming BlackBerry line received another endorsement from a leading brokerage.

Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski lifted her rating on RIM from ‘neutral’ to ‘buy’ and increased its price target from US$9 to US$16, believing that the vendor’s new BB10 devices will impress.

“With these devices RIM appears to finally be aiming for the leading edge hardware performance that was missing from its prior generations,” Jankowski said in a note to clients.

“We expect our estimates to exceed [Wall Street’s] estimates for the next four quarters,” she added, predicting that the new devices could see RIM return to profitability for its fiscal year ending March 2014 – reversing an expected loss in fiscal 2013.

According to Reuters, RIM shares rose by almost 7 percent on the NASDAQ yesterday (closing at US$11.54) meaning the stock has risen 78 percent since late September, though still down 23 percent on the year.

Jankowski is one of several analysts backing RIM’s new strategy; others include National Bank’s Kris Thompson and Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek.

The first BB10 smartphones will be unveiled by RIM at a launch event on 30 January next year, and are likely to ship the following month.