BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday.

BB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. CIBC reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of BlackBerry in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $4.25 to $4.60 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.75 to $4.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, June 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackBerry presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $4.60.

BlackBerry Trading Down 2.5%

BB stock opened at $3.91 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -65.17 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.14. BlackBerry has a 52 week low of $2.01 and a 52 week high of $6.24.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 24th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 6.44% and a positive return on equity of 2.29%. The company had revenue of $121.26 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $112.18 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.03) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that BlackBerry will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 26,998 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.32, for a total value of $116,631.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 530,135 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,290,183.20. This represents a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 16,217 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.25, for a total value of $85,139.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 57,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $301,890.75. The trade was a 22.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 58,417 shares of company stock valued at $267,524. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BB. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its stake in BlackBerry by 10.9% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 38,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,000 after buying an additional 3,755 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 63.9% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 3,811 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 115,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,000 after buying an additional 4,226 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 70,829 shares of the company’s stock worth $268,000 after buying an additional 4,375 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 16.7% during the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 31,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,000 after buying an additional 4,525 shares during the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.