BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $4.41, but opened at $4.52. BlackBerry shares last traded at $4.51, with a volume of 1,168,745 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on BB shares. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. TD Securities upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com raised BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $3.69.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $4.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.25. The company has a market cap of $2.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.98 and a beta of 1.27. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.03. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 21.16% and a negative return on equity of 2.02%. The firm had revenue of $143.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.84 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.01 EPS. BlackBerry’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In related news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 385,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,418,831.36. The trade was a 28.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.19, for a total transaction of $102,340.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 244,221 shares of company stock worth $925,655. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 60.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 249,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $652,000 after buying an additional 93,651 shares during the period. Milestone Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in BlackBerry during the 4th quarter worth approximately $557,000. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackBerry in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,285,000. Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 60.5% in the 4th quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 644,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,448,000 after purchasing an additional 243,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thompson Davis & CO. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the 4th quarter worth $641,000. Hedge funds and other 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.