BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Sees Large Volume Increase - Here's What Happened

Shares of BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) saw an uptick in trading volume on Monday . 49,357,121 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 102% from the previous session's volume of 24,431,664 shares.The stock last traded at $5.48 and had previously closed at $5.24.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on BB. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. TD Securities upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, TD Cowen raised BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $3.69.

BlackBerry Price Performance

The company's 50 day simple moving average is $4.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $3.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -22.84 and a beta of 1.31.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $144.84 million. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. The business's revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.01 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at BlackBerry

In other BlackBerry news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $573,399.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 385,552 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,418,831.36. The trade was a 28.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 12,680 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total transaction of $50,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 278,306 shares in the company, valued at $1,113,224. This trade represents a 4.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 244,221 shares of company stock worth $925,655. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 60.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 249,218 shares of the company's stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 93,651 shares during the period. Milestone Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the 4th quarter worth about $557,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,439,240 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,789,000 after acquiring an additional 294,250 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,285,000. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its position in shares of BlackBerry by 60.5% in the 4th quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 644,900 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,448,000 after acquiring an additional 243,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.48% of the company's stock.

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.