BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Cut to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on BB. CIBC boosted their price target on BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $3.00 target price on shares of BlackBerry in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.23.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

NYSE:BB opened at $2.32 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 1.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a PE ratio of -9.26 and a beta of 1.42. BlackBerry has a fifty-two week low of $2.01 and a fifty-two week high of $4.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $2.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.49.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $145.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $138.82 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.06) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that BlackBerry will post -0.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 15,005 shares of the stock in a transaction 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. This represents a 33.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,505,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,835,000 after acquiring an additional 149,444 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its stake in BlackBerry by 132.4% during the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 6,069,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,631,000 after purchasing an additional 3,458,275 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 25.6% during the first quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 12,443,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,343,000 after buying an additional 2,536,966 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 36.2% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 130,114 shares of the company’s stock valued at $323,000 after buying an additional 34,615 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 130,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $327,000 after buying an additional 9,156 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.