BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) Short Interest Update

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) saw a significant decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 28,690,000 shares, a decline of 6.1% from the January 15th total of 30,540,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 17,640,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.6 days. Currently, 4.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BB has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird raised 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. TD Securities upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $3.69.

BlackBerry Trading Up 6.8 %

NYSE BB opened at $6.08 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $4.13 and its 200-day moving average is $3.01. BlackBerry has a 12-month low of $2.01 and a 12-month high of $6.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last posted its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $143.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $144.84 million. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.01 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that BlackBerry will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In related news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $573,399.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 385,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,418,831.36. This trade represents a 28.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.19, for a total transaction of $102,340.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 244,221 shares of company stock valued at $925,655 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BB. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of BlackBerry by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 33,185,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,987,000 after purchasing an additional 5,518,216 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in BlackBerry by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,865,831 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,844,000 after buying an additional 364,569 shares in the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC bought a new position in BlackBerry in the 4th quarter worth about $53,267,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 41.9% in the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 13,669,715 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,856,000 after acquiring an additional 4,039,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 12,755,972 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,218,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558,904 shares during 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.