BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Sets New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $4.57 and last traded at $4.50, with a volume of 7151069 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $4.31.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. TD Securities raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, CIBC increased their price target 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. Six equities research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $3.69.

BlackBerry Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $3.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.74 billion, a PE ratio of -21.02 and a beta of 1.31.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 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 the consensus estimate of $144.84 million. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.01 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $53,268.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 238,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $878,923.84. This trade represents a 5.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 244,221 shares of company stock valued at $925,655. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackBerry

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BB. Barclays PLC raised its position in BlackBerry by 60.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 249,218 shares of the company’s stock valued at $652,000 after buying an additional 93,651 shares during the period. Milestone Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in BlackBerry in the 4th quarter worth about $557,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,439,240 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,789,000 after purchasing an additional 294,250 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,285,000. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in BlackBerry by 1.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,309,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,431,000 after buying an additional 24,309 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.