BlackBerry Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:BB)

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders acquired 39,126 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 39% compared to the typical daily volume of 28,118 call options.

Insider Activity

In other BlackBerry news, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $53,268.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 238,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $878,923.84. The trade was a 5.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $573,399.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 385,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,418,831.36. This trade represents a 28.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 174,913 shares of company stock worth $643,741. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in BlackBerry by 5,408.9% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,431,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,510,000 after acquiring an additional 3,369,296 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 11,922,795 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,238,000 after purchasing an additional 1,637,916 shares in the last quarter. Potrero Capital Research LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,359,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 815.6% during the 2nd quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 548,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,361,000 after buying an additional 488,934 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BlackBerry in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,285,000. Institutional investors own 54.48% of the company’s stock.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

BlackBerry stock traded down $0.11 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $3.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 14,302,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,895,205. The company has a market capitalization of $2.35 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.92 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $2.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.56. BlackBerry has a 12-month low of $2.01 and a 12-month high of $4.35. 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 earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. 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 return on equity of 3.38% and a negative net margin of 21.66%. The business had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.84 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.01 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that BlackBerry will post -0.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on BB shares. TD Cowen upgraded BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. CIBC lifted their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. TD Securities raised BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong 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 $3.60.

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.