Wall Street Zen Downgrades BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) to Hold

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen has downgraded BlackBerry from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating, signaling a more cautious outlook on the stock.
• BlackBerry's recent earnings report showed a profit of $0.02 per share, exceeding expectations, but the company's revenue fell by 15.5% year-over-year.
• Institutional investors have increased their stake in BlackBerry, with Parallel Advisors boosting their holdings by 216.2% in the first quarter.

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of BlackBerry (NYSE:BB - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on BlackBerry from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 25th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on BlackBerry from $4.25 to $4.60 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective 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, CIBC reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of BlackBerry in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $4.60.

BlackBerry Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of BB traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $3.66. The company had a trading volume of 4,384,333 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,969,758. The firm has a market cap of $2.17 billion, a P/E ratio of -61.08 and a beta of 1.49. BlackBerry has a 52-week low of $2.17 and a 52-week high of $6.24. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $4.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.11. 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 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 firm had revenue of $121.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $112.18 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.03) EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that BlackBerry will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Voya Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the 1st quarter worth approximately $95,166,000. Hood River Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in BlackBerry during the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,267,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 69.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 9,442,676 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry in the 4th quarter valued at $19,485,000. Finally, NewGen Asset Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry in the 4th quarter valued at $14,282,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.48% of the company's stock.

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.