BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Shares Up 7% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) shot up 7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $4.38 and last traded at $4.38. 13,983,184 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 24% from the average session volume of 18,352,430 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.09.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. CIBC raised their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. TD Securities upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $3.69.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company has a 50 day moving average of $3.50 and a 200 day moving average of $2.77. The firm has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.98 and a beta of 1.30.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 12,680 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total transaction of $50,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 278,306 shares in the company, valued at $1,113,224. This represents a 4.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of the firm’s 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 have sold a total of 244,221 shares of company stock valued at $925,655 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of Montreal Can increased its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 32.7% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,733,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,300,000 after purchasing an additional 427,083 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in BlackBerry by 18.1% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 822,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,040,000 after buying an additional 125,894 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of BlackBerry by 815.6% during the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 548,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,361,000 after buying an additional 488,934 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 5,408.9% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,431,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,510,000 after acquiring an additional 3,369,296 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 441,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,101,000 after acquiring an additional 11,370 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.48% of the company’s stock.

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.