BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Trading Up 7% – Should You Buy?

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 traded hands during mid-day 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. CIBC lifted their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. TD Securities raised BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $3.69.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.75 and a beta of 1.30. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $3.41 and its 200-day moving average is $2.75.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.84 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.01 EPS. BlackBerry’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackBerry

In other BlackBerry news, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 12,680 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total value of $50,720.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 278,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,113,224. The trade was a 4.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 29,402 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total transaction of $117,608.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 490,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,963,044. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 219,796 shares of company stock worth $823,314. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackBerry

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Milestone Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackBerry in the fourth quarter worth $557,000. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackBerry in the 4th quarter valued at about $38,000. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the 4th quarter valued at about $95,000. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter worth about $65,000. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of BlackBerry by 60.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 249,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 93,651 shares during the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.