BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Shares Gap Up - Here's What Happened

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $4.41, but opened at $4.52. BlackBerry shares last traded at $4.51, with a volume of 1,168,745 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BB shares. TD Cowen upgraded BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of BlackBerry from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. TD Securities raised shares of BlackBerry from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Six investment 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, BlackBerry presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $3.91.

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BlackBerry Stock Up 2.5 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.52 and a beta of 1.27. 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 firm's fifty day moving average is $4.59 and its 200-day moving average is $3.28.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $143.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.84 million. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 21.16% and a negative return on equity of 2.02%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.01 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BlackBerry

In other news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total value of $573,399.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 385,552 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,418,831.36. This trade represents a 28.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $53,268.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 238,838 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $878,923.84. This represents a 5.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 244,221 shares of company stock worth $925,655. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in BlackBerry by 63.9% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,773 shares of the company's stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 3,811 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the third quarter valued at $38,000. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Mindset Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry in the 4th quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in BlackBerry by 100.3% in 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. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.