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

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 24,557 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 39% compared to the average volume of 17,626 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BB has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $3.00 price target on shares of BlackBerry in a report on Friday, September 27th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $2.70 to $2.80 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $3.23.

BlackBerry Price Performance

BB stock traded up $0.04 during trading on Thursday, reaching $2.61. 16,315,644 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,109,149. The company has a 50-day moving average of $2.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.47. The company has a market capitalization of $1.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.42 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.44. BlackBerry has a twelve month low of $2.01 and a twelve month high of $4.44.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackBerry

In other news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 15,005 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, September 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.53, for a total transaction of $37,962.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $76,226.37. The trade was a 33.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackBerry

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 83.3% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 11,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 5,349 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the second quarter worth about $43,000. Finally, Viewpoint Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the second quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.