Motorola surprised investors by reporting a small profit for the second quarter and revealing it had shipped more cell phones than in the first quarter, an Associated Press report said.
Its shares soared with the development, the report added.
The unexpected profit was the result of a sales increase across all units from the first quarter, helped by cost cuts. The company has laid off more than 10,000 workers since last year.
The firm earned €2.6 million (US$4 million) in the three months ended June 30. In the same quarter a year ago, Motorola lost €18 million (US$28 million).
Its sales fell 7.4% to €5.2 billion (US$8.1 billion), but that exceeded the €4.9 billion (US$7.7 billion) that analysts were predicting, the report said.
The company shipped 28.1 million cell phones, up from 27 million in the first quarter, and said it maintained its share of the global handset market.
According to research firm IDC, Motorola's market share actually slipped slightly from 9.4% of the global market in the first quarter to 9.2% in the second, but the company narrowly maintained its third-place ranking, just above South Korea's LG Electronics, with 9.1%. Nokia is the largest maker of cell phones, followed by Samsung Electronics.