74,650 Shares in BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) Acquired by Avantax Advisory Services Inc.

Key Points

• Avantax Advisory Services Inc. purchased 74,650 shares of BlackBerry Limited, valued at approximately $281,000, indicating increased institutional interest in the company.
• Multiple analysts have raised their price targets for BlackBerry, with a current consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $4.60.
• BlackBerry reported earnings of $0.02 per share for the last quarter, beating expectations, even though revenue declined by 15.5% year-over-year.

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 74,650 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $281,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hood River Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in BlackBerry in the 4th quarter worth $53,267,000. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 33,185,748 shares of the company's stock valued at $125,987,000 after acquiring an additional 5,518,216 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the 4th quarter valued at about $19,485,000. NewGen Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the 4th quarter valued at about $14,282,000. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 293.7% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 4,552,129 shares of the company's stock valued at $17,207,000 after acquiring an additional 3,395,786 shares in the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other BlackBerry news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 16,217 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.25, for a total transaction of $85,139.25. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 57,503 shares in the company, valued at $301,890.75. This represents a 22.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 26,998 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.32, for a total transaction of $116,631.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 530,135 shares in the company, valued at $2,290,183.20. The trade was a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 58,417 shares of company stock worth $267,524 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.

BlackBerry Stock Up 2.2%

BB traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $3.66. 5,706,649 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,970,158. BlackBerry Limited has a 1-year low of $2.17 and a 1-year high of $6.24. The stock's 50-day moving average is $4.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.11. The stock has a market cap of $2.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -61.00 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BB. CIBC reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of BlackBerry in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of BlackBerry from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price 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. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $4.25 to $4.60 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $4.60.

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.