BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Trading Up 8.8% – Still a Buy?

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) shares rose 8.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $5.72 and last traded at $5.74. Approximately 14,983,071 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 31% from the average daily volume of 21,768,123 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.27.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. CIBC raised their price target on BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. TD Securities raised BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Six 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $3.69.

BlackBerry Stock Up 10.0 %

The company has a 50-day moving average of $3.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.91. The company has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a PE ratio of -26.34 and a beta of 1.31. 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 quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the firm earned $0.01 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In other BlackBerry news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $573,399.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 385,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,418,831.36. The trade was a 28.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 244,221 shares of company stock valued at $925,655. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackBerry

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of BB. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Mindset Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackBerry in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Bravias Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in BlackBerry in the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. Institutional investors 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.