BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Trading Up 9.6% – Here’s Why

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB)’s share price was up 9.6% on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $5.03 and last traded at $5.07. Approximately 20,230,713 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 1% from the average daily volume of 20,353,684 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.62.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. TD Cowen raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, TD Securities raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Six 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $3.69.

BlackBerry Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -23.02 and a beta of 1.31. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $3.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.03. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. The business had revenue of $143.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $144.84 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.01 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total value of $53,268.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 238,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $878,923.84. This represents a 5.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 29,402 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total transaction of $117,608.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 490,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,963,044. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 244,221 shares of company stock valued at $925,655 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in BlackBerry by 83.3% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 11,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 5,349 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 267,073 shares of the company’s stock worth $706,000 after acquiring an additional 7,652 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 60.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 20,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $540,000 after purchasing an additional 7,842 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in BlackBerry by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 709,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,690,000 after purchasing an additional 8,787 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its position in BlackBerry by 65.5% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 22,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 9,063 shares during the period. 54.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.