Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on BlackBerry (NYSE:BB)

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 32,499 call options on the company. This is an increase of 56% compared to the typical volume of 20,876 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 value of $37,962.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 30,129 shares in the company, valued at $76,226.37. This trade represents a 33.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its position in shares of BlackBerry by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 11,922,795 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,238,000 after buying an additional 1,637,916 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 5,408.9% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,431,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,510,000 after purchasing an additional 3,369,296 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,733,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,300,000 after acquiring an additional 427,083 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in BlackBerry by 1.4% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,496,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,740,000 after purchasing an additional 21,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackBerry by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,439,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,789,000 after buying an additional 294,250 shares during the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on BlackBerry from $2.70 to $2.80 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. 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 target price on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, CIBC raised their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $3.26.

BlackBerry Trading Up 3.6 %

Shares of NYSE:BB opened at $3.20 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.44. The company has a market capitalization of $1.89 billion, a PE ratio of -12.76 and a beta of 1.43. 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 has a 12-month low of $2.01 and a 12-month high of $4.36.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $145.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $138.82 million. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 3.38% and a negative net margin of 21.66%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.06) EPS. As a group, equities 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.