Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of BlackBerry Call Options (NYSE:BB)

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 40,452 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 132% compared to the average volume of 17,449 call options.

Insider Transactions at BlackBerry

In other BlackBerry news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 16,217 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 26,998 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.32, for a total value of $116,631.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 530,135 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,290,183.20. This trade represents a 4.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,417 shares of company stock worth $267,524 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackBerry

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BB. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 216.2% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 7,156 shares of the company's stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 4,893 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased 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 valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 3,811 shares during the period. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in BlackBerry during the 1st quarter valued at about $37,000. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in BlackBerry by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 10,000 shares of the company's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 5,008 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BlackBerry in the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on BlackBerry from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.75 to $4.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. CIBC reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of BlackBerry in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on BlackBerry from $4.25 to $4.60 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $4.60.

BlackBerry Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of BlackBerry stock traded down $0.15 during trading on Thursday, reaching $3.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 10,329,080 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,786,619. The company has a market cap of $2.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -65.92 and a beta of 1.47. The firm's 50-day moving average is $4.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.14. BlackBerry has a 52-week low of $2.01 and a 52-week high of $6.24. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 24th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $121.26 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $112.18 million. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 6.44% and a positive return on equity of 2.29%. The company's revenue was down 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.03) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackBerry will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

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.