BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 29,210,000 shares, a decline of 7.2% from the August 15th total of 31,470,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 7,410,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days. Approximately 5.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In other BlackBerry news, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 52,549 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.45, for a total transaction of $128,745.05. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 214,440 shares in the company, valued at approximately $525,378. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BB. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 28.4% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 25,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,000 after acquiring an additional 5,645 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in BlackBerry by 33.1% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 140,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 34,818 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in BlackBerry during the fourth quarter worth about $362,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter worth approximately $48,775,000. Finally, Oxford Asset Management LLP bought a new position in shares of BlackBerry in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Institutional investors own 54.48% of the company’s stock.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

Shares of BB traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $2.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,724,265 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,867,645. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $2.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a PE ratio of -8.33 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.43. BlackBerry has a one year low of $2.01 and a one year high of $5.25.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.01. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 6.43% and a negative net margin of 25.80%. The firm had revenue of $144.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $132.05 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.04 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 61.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackBerry will post -0.09 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. CIBC upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $3.50 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.25 to $2.70 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $3.00 price objective on shares of BlackBerry in a report on Thursday, June 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.20.

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.