This past week both Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) and Nokia’s (NYSE:NOK) stock rose by more than 10% with some of the upside attributed to a series of brokerages upgrades and some to the belief that these companies still remain a good acquisition targets after Google (NYSE:GOOG) acquired Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) for $12.5 billion. Samsung was also in news this week because it launched new smartphones and due the rumor that it may consider buying HP’s (NYSE:HPQ) webOS to compete more effectively against Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google.

Here are some of the key updates from the week on these names.

RIM

RIM’s stock has jumped more than 35% in the last few weeks. Sterne Agee recently upgraded RIM’s shares to buy from neutral based on “near term product catalysts” and mentions that “mixed to positive” reviews of devices based on the latest BlackBerry 7 operating system is an improvement for the popularity of its devices.^[1] Macquarie Securities also had an out of consensus buy recommendation and target price of $29. However, we believe the main triggers for RIM in the medium term remains the migration to QNX in 2012 and solid management of its product portfolio. Since Google offered to buy Motorola Mobility at a 60% premium over Motorola’s intrinsic price, it led many to believe that struggling players like Nokia and RIM might be good buy-out candidates too.

See Upgrade Gives RIM’s Stock Life, QNX Still the Key and After Google-Motorola Deal Are Nokia and RIM Next?.

See our company analysis

Nokia

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue reiterated an Outperform rating on shares of Nokia (NOK) and a $9 price target based on the strength of its so-called dual SIM phones. Dual SIM phones are more popular in emerging markets like China and India, and Nokia was late in adopting this trend. However, during Q1 2011 earnings conference call, Nokia management had indicated that it planned to launch the C2 dual-SIM devices by the end of Q2.^[2]

See 3 Negative Factors Slowing Nokia’s Near-Term Outlook.

See our company analysis

Samsung

Samsung unveiled three new smartphones this week running its own operating system Bada as it seeks to expand market share in the low-end segment and diversify its lineups heavily focused on Google’s Android software. Samsung had launched four new mid-to-low end models running on Android last week as well.^[3] Another interesting development at Samsung was that according to DigiTimes, Samsung could acquire HP’s webOS mobile software to shore up its own smartphone operating system Bada.^[4]

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