RIM Gored by Its Own Bull

The bloodletting has begun for Research in Motion, which Friday said it would fall short of its financial targets for its fiscal third quarter. And even the company’s recent bulls are getting in on the action.

Case in point, Scotia Capital’s Gus Papageorgiou, who just last Monday was talking up RIM’s stock in an enthusiastic research note.

Now, following RIM’s warning, he’s the picture of pessimism. In his latest research note, he slashed his price target on the company to about $20 from about $45 and unloaded on its leadership, saying he sees “no point in putting any faith in RIM’s management team.”

“Fiscal 2012 has been nothing short of disastrous for the company, filled with delayed product launches, poor investor communications, missed financial targets, and terrible execution,” Papageorgiou writes. “There is little chance that investors are likely to accept the status quo. We believe management has to signal that changes are coming if it hopes to maintain any investor base. … [Its] failure to recognize and react to the shifting dynamics in the competitive environment and the chronic mis-executions in the past year cannot go unnoticed.”

Or unaddressed. And on that issue, Papageorgiou believes we may see a leadership reckoning in 2012 — or something more. “Given the disastrous 2011 the company has had, we believe the potential for a shake-up in management and/or sale of the company has increased,” he concludes.