BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Shares of BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $2.69, but opened at $2.80. BlackBerry shares last traded at $3.08, with a volume of 6,543,661 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $2.70 to $2.80 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. CIBC boosted their price target on BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com raised BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackBerry has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.26.

BlackBerry Trading Up 3.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 1.44. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $2.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.44. The company has a market cap of $1.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.80 and a beta of 1.43.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $145.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $138.82 million. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 21.66% and a negative return on equity of 3.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.06) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 15,005 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Saturday, September 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.53, for a total value of $37,962.65. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $76,226.37. This represents a 33.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BB. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in BlackBerry by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,439,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,789,000 after buying an additional 294,250 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackBerry in the third quarter valued at about $1,285,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in BlackBerry by 7.6% during the third 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 period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its stake in BlackBerry by 815.6% in the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 548,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,361,000 after purchasing an additional 488,934 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC boosted its holdings in BlackBerry by 911.4% in the 2nd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 371,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $920,000 after purchasing an additional 334,466 shares during the period. 54.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.