Wall Street Zen Downgrades BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) to Hold

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report released on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on BB. CIBC lowered their price target on BlackBerry from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an "outperformer" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price objective on BlackBerry from $4.75 to $4.25 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a $3.75 price objective on BlackBerry in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $4.12.

BlackBerry Trading Down 2.7%

Shares of BlackBerry stock traded down $0.11 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $4.08. The company's stock had a trading volume of 18,004,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,088,031. BlackBerry has a 12 month low of $2.01 and a 12 month high of $6.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $3.67 and a 200 day moving average of $3.94. The company has a market capitalization of $2.43 billion, a PE ratio of -18.54 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 2nd. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.01. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. The company had revenue of $141.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $137.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.03 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that BlackBerry will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Jennifer Armstrong-Owen sold 29,940 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.99, for a total transaction of $89,520.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 42,398 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $126,770.02. This represents a 41.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders sold 37,216 shares of company stock worth $112,025. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in BlackBerry by 63.9% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,773 shares of the company's stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 3,811 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in BlackBerry by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 115,116 shares of the company's stock worth $435,000 after purchasing an additional 4,226 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC lifted its holdings in BlackBerry by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 70,829 shares of the company's stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 4,375 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in BlackBerry by 16.7% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 31,641 shares of the company's stock worth $119,000 after purchasing an additional 4,525 shares during the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is 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.