Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on BlackBerry (NYSE:BB)

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 24,557 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 39% compared to the average volume of 17,626 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BB has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $3.00 price objective on shares of BlackBerry in a research note on Friday, September 27th. CIBC boosted their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $3.23.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In other BlackBerry news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 15,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, September 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.53, for a total transaction of $37,962.65. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 30,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $76,226.37. This trade represents a 33.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 5,349 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 2.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 267,073 shares of the company’s stock valued at $706,000 after buying an additional 7,652 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in BlackBerry by 60.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 20,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $540,000 after buying an additional 7,842 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its position in BlackBerry by 65.5% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 22,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 9,063 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in BlackBerry by 7.5% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 130,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $327,000 after acquiring an additional 9,156 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.48% of the company’s stock.

BlackBerry Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BB opened at $2.61 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $2.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.47. BlackBerry has a 1-year low of $2.01 and a 1-year high of $4.44. The firm has a market cap of $1.54 billion, a PE ratio of -10.44 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

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

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.