BlackBerry Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:BB)

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 39,126 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 39% compared to the typical daily volume of 28,118 call options.

BlackBerry Stock Down 2.7 %

BlackBerry stock traded down $0.11 on Tuesday, hitting $3.98. 14,302,883 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,895,205. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.56. The firm has a market cap of $2.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.92 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. BlackBerry has a 1 year low of $2.01 and a 1 year high of $4.35.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $144.84 million. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 21.66% and a negative return on equity of 3.38%. BlackBerry’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.01 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackBerry will post -0.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BB. StockNews.com upgraded BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Securities raised BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $3.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $573,399.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 385,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,418,831.36. This represents a 28.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $53,268.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 238,838 shares in the company, valued at approximately $878,923.84. The trade was a 5.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 174,913 shares of company stock worth $643,741 in the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its position in BlackBerry by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,439,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,789,000 after purchasing an additional 294,250 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,285,000. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of BlackBerry by 1.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,309,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,431,000 after acquiring an additional 24,309 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in BlackBerry by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 163,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $428,000 after acquiring an additional 11,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC lifted its position in BlackBerry by 815.6% in the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 548,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,361,000 after acquiring an additional 488,934 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.48% of the company’s stock.

About BlackBerry

BlackBerry Limited provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Cybersecurity, IoT, and Licensing and Other. The company offers CylanceENDPOINT, an integrated endpoint security solution; CylanceGUARD, a managed detection and response solution; CylanceEDGE, an AI-powered continuous authentication zero trust network access solution; CylanceINTELLIGENCE, a contextual cyber threat intelligence service; BlackBerry Dynamics offers a development platform and secure container for mobile applications; BlackBerry Workspaces a secure Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) solution; BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) Enterprise, an enterprise-grade secure instant messaging solution for messaging, voice and video; BlackBerry SecuSUITE is a certified, multi-OS voice and text messaging solution; BlackBerry AtHoc, a secure networked critical event management solution; and BlackBerry unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions.