BlackBerry Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:BB)

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 42,525 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 89% compared to the average volume of 22,504 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, June 22nd. CIBC reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of BlackBerry in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.75 to $4.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $4.25 to $4.60 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong 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 $4.38.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In other BlackBerry news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 16,217 shares of the business'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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 57,503 shares in the company, valued at $301,890.75. The trade was a 22.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jennifer Armstrong-Owen sold 29,940 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.99, for a total value of $89,520.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 42,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $126,770.02. The trade was a 41.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 53,433 shares of company stock valued at $197,164 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackBerry

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 216.2% during the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 7,156 shares of the company's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 4,893 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in BlackBerry by 63.9% during 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. Mindset Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in BlackBerry in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC bought a new position in BlackBerry in the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.48% of the company's stock.

BlackBerry Price Performance

BB traded down $0.19 during trading on Friday, reaching $4.54. The stock had a trading volume of 29,540,008 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,917,232. BlackBerry has a 1-year low of $2.01 and a 1-year high of $6.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $3.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -75.58 and a beta of 1.45.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 24th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. BlackBerry had a positive return on equity of 2.29% and a negative net margin of 6.44%. The company had revenue of $121.26 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $112.18 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.03) EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BlackBerry will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.