Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of BlackBerry Call Options (NYSE:BB)

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Traders bought 56,163 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 48% compared to the typical volume of 38,012 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on BB. TD Cowen upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. TD Securities upgraded BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $3.69.

BlackBerry Price Performance

BB stock traded down $0.54 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $4.82. 54,744,298 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 25,657,791. 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.13. BlackBerry has a one year low of $2.01 and a one year high of $6.24. The company has a market cap of $2.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.90 and a beta of 1.31.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $143.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 company posted $0.01 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that BlackBerry will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackBerry news, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of the business’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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total value of $573,399.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 385,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,418,831.36. This represents a 28.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 244,221 shares of company stock worth $925,655. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackBerry

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in BlackBerry by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 353,306 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,341,000 after purchasing an additional 13,089 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of BlackBerry by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 813,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,074,000 after acquiring an additional 26,129 shares in the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,938,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 105.2% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 920,458 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,479,000 after acquiring an additional 471,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its stake in BlackBerry by 293.7% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 4,552,129 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,207,000 after purchasing an additional 3,395,786 shares during the period. 54.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.