Investors Purchase Large Volume of BlackBerry Call Options (NYSE:BB)

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

BB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. CIBC boosted 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. TD Securities boosted their price target on BlackBerry from $2.75 to $3.25 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on BlackBerry from $2.70 to $2.80 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackBerry presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.34.

BlackBerry Trading Down 5.9 %

Shares of NYSE:BB opened at $3.01 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.04 and a beta of 1.43. BlackBerry has a 52-week low of $2.01 and a 52-week high of $4.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 1.44.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.02. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 21.66% and a negative return on equity of 3.38%. The company had revenue of $145.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $138.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.06) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that BlackBerry will post -0.06 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BlackBerry

In related news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 15,005 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Saturday, September 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.53, for a total value of $37,962.65. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 30,129 shares in the company, valued at $76,226.37. The trade was a 33.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackBerry

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BlackBerry during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of BlackBerry by 83.3% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 11,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 5,349 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management bought a new position in BlackBerry in the 2nd quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Viewpoint Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in BlackBerry in the 2nd quarter worth $50,000. 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.