BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Shares Gap Up - Here's What Happened

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $4.41, but opened at $4.52. BlackBerry shares last traded at $4.51, with a volume of 1,168,745 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. TD Securities upgraded BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackBerry has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $3.91.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.84 and a beta of 1.27.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. The firm had revenue of $143.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $144.84 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.01 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackBerry

In other BlackBerry news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 29,402 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total value of $117,608.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 490,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,963,044. This represents a 5.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 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 $53,268.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 238,838 shares in the company, valued at approximately $878,923.84. This trade represents a 5.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 244,221 shares of company stock worth $925,655 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 63.9% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,773 shares of the company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 3,811 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the third quarter worth $38,000. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in BlackBerry during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Mindset Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in BlackBerry in the fourth quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in BlackBerry by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 10,000 shares of the company's stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 5,008 shares during the period. 54.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.