Research firm Citron Research, well known for its bearish short calls on companies such as Valeant (VRX) and Mallinckrodt (MNK), has recently touted BlackBerry (BBRY) as a stock it sees poised to move higher. On the other side, however, stands Wall Street firm Credit Suisse, which remains bearish on the company as it moves from its legacy hardware business and remakes itself as a software maker. While Citron Research issued a bullish report last week, citing BlackBerry's position as a market leader in autonomous and connected vehicle software, Credit Suisse said it viewed the recent announcement that Toyota Motor (TM) would be shifting from the company's QNX software in favor of an open source platform for its next generation infotainment system as a "significant loss" for the company.

BACKGROUND: Automotive Grade Linux, or AGL, announced on May 31 that Toyota had adopted the open-source platform for its infotainment system, expecting to introduce the software in its 2018 Toyota Camry in the U.S. AGL is a collaborative project hosted by The Linux Foundation between automakers, suppliers and technology companies for the development and adoption of software for the connected car.

CITRON BULLISH: The day after AGL's announcement, Citron Research issued a new positive report on the stock on June 1, saying it expects a "wow" move or buyout ahead for the software company. The research firm also compared the stock favorably to investor and analyst favorite Nvidia (NVDA), citing segment growth as a potential driver. BlackBerry has "virtually completed its transition from hardware to software," leaving its stock poised for "a double" or a potential takeover from a company such as Qualcomm (QCOM), Nvidia or NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), contends Citron in its report. In addition, Citron said BlackBerry's QNX platform is the leader in securing cars for autonomous driving technology and its ISO 26262 safety certification is unmatched by Windows and most versions of Linux.

'SIGNIFICANT LOSS': In an analyst note issued today, Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha wrote that Toyota's shift from QNX software is a "significant loss" for BlackBerry as Toyota is the world's largest automaker and the move indicates increased competition for QNX. He added while QNX is a small part of BlackBerry's overall business, he sees this news as damaging its growth story in autonomous and connected cars. Garcha did say, however, that AGL does appear to be heavy on Japanese manufacturers and he will continue to look into how much the system can penetrate the global market. He keeps an Underperform rating and $8 price target on BlackBerry shares.

PRICE ACTION: BlackBerry dropped 1.8% to $11.09 in afternoon trading. The stock is still up about 3.5% since June 1 and has advanced over 60% during the last three months.