BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Trading 9.6% Higher – What’s Next?

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB)’s share price rose 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 trading, a decline of 1% from the average daily volume of 20,353,684 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.62.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BB has been the topic of a number of research reports. 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 report on Friday, January 10th. CIBC increased their price target on BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $3.69.

BlackBerry Trading Up 1.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -23.84 and a beta of 1.31. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $3.71 and a 200 day moving average of $2.85.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $143.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $144.84 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.19, for a total transaction of $102,340.75. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total value of $573,399.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 244,221 shares of company stock worth $925,655. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 83.3% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 11,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 5,349 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the third quarter valued at $38,000. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.