BlackBerry is up 8% after posting a quarterly loss

BlackBerry shares rose as much as 8% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company reported a first-quarter loss.

The company posted a quarterly earnings loss of $0.05, worse than expectations for a loss of $0.04, according to Bloomberg.

Sales came in at $658 million, below the consensus forecast for $680 million.

Smartphone sales fell to $263 million from $379 million year-over-year. But software sales improved, coming in at $137 million versus $37 million in the previous quarter.

The company has refocused on its software segment as phone sales faltered.

In the statement, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said, "I am pleased with the strong performance of our software and technology business. This is key to BlackBerry's future growth. Our financials reflect increased investments to sales and customer support for our software business. In addition, we are taking steps to make the handset business profitable."

Shares are down 16% year-to-date and about 6% over the past 12 months.