BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) Short Interest Up 7.1% in January

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 29,500,000 shares, a growth of 7.1% from the December 31st total of 27,540,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 13,000,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days. Approximately 5.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In other news, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $878,923.84. This trade represents a 5.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.19, for a total value of $102,340.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 244,221 shares of company stock valued at $925,655 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackBerry

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BB. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 60.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 249,218 shares of the company’s stock valued at $652,000 after acquiring an additional 93,651 shares in the last quarter. Milestone Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in BlackBerry in the fourth quarter valued at about $557,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BlackBerry during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,285,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of BlackBerry by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,309,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,431,000 after purchasing an additional 24,309 shares in the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackBerry Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE:BB opened at $4.31 on Tuesday. BlackBerry has a 1 year low of $2.01 and a 1 year high of $4.54. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.80. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $144.84 million. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 21.16% and a negative return on equity of 2.02%. BlackBerry’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.01 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackBerry will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. TD Securities upgraded BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackBerry presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $3.69.

BlackBerry Company Profile

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.