BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to Buy Rating

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Friday morning.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. CIBC restated an “outperform” rating on shares of BlackBerry in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $4.25 to $4.60 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.75 to $4.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $4.60.

BlackBerry Stock Down 2.5%

NYSE BB traded down $0.10 on Friday, hitting $3.91. The stock had a trading volume of 5,928,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,583,448. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $4.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 2.10. BlackBerry has a 52-week low of $2.01 and a 52-week high of $6.24. The stock has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -65.17 and a beta of 1.47.

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

Insider Transactions at BlackBerry

In other news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 26,998 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were 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 owned 530,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,290,183.20. The trade was a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 16,217 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.25, for a total transaction of $85,139.25. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 57,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $301,890.75. This trade represents a 22.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 58,417 shares of company stock valued at $267,524. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackBerry

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BB. Voya Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in BlackBerry during the first quarter worth approximately $95,166,000. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in BlackBerry during the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,267,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in BlackBerry by 69.1% during the first quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 23,112,391 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,064,000 after buying an additional 9,442,676 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 33,185,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,987,000 after purchasing an additional 5,518,216 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry in the fourth quarter valued at $19,485,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.48% of the company’s stock.

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.