Stock Traders Buy High Volume of BlackBerry Call Options (NYSE:BB)

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on BB. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Sunday. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $3.75 price objective on shares of BlackBerry in a research report on Friday. CIBC restated an "outperform" rating on shares of BlackBerry in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of BlackBerry in a research note on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $4.12.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In related news, SVP Jennifer Armstrong-Owen sold 29,940 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.99, for a total transaction of $89,520.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 42,398 shares in the company, valued at $126,770.02. This trade represents a 41.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 37,216 shares of company stock valued at $112,025 in the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of BlackBerry by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 33,185,748 shares of the company's stock valued at $125,987,000 after purchasing an additional 5,518,216 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC bought a new position in BlackBerry in the 1st quarter worth about $95,166,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in BlackBerry by 69.1% during the 1st quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 23,112,391 shares of the company's stock valued at $87,064,000 after buying an additional 9,442,676 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BlackBerry by 1.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,084,515 shares of the company's stock valued at $86,936,000 after buying an additional 218,684 shares during the period. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter valued at about $53,267,000. Institutional investors own 54.48% of the company's stock.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BB traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $4.34. 17,425,371 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,940,626. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.35 and a beta of 1.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $3.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.72 and a quick ratio of 1.72. BlackBerry has a 52 week low of $2.01 and a 52 week high of $6.24.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 2nd. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.01. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 13.84% and a negative return on equity of 1.78%. The company had revenue of $141.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $137.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.03 EPS. BlackBerry's revenue was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that BlackBerry will post -0.03 EPS for the current 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.