BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on BB. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $4.75 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. TD Securities raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $4.00 target price on shares of BlackBerry in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.91.

BlackBerry Stock Down 9.4 %

Shares of BB stock traded down $0.35 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $3.38. 27,430,982 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 24,181,203. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $4.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. BlackBerry has a 52-week low of $2.01 and a 52-week high of $6.24. The stock has a market cap of $2.02 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.36 and a beta of 1.27.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 2nd. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $141.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $137.56 million. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 21.16% and a negative return on equity of 2.02%. BlackBerry’s revenue was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.03 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that BlackBerry will post -0.03 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 155,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $573,399.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 385,552 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,418,831.36. This represents a 28.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jay P. Chai sold 24,425 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.19, for a total transaction of $102,340.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 244,221 shares of company stock valued at $925,655. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackBerry

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its position in BlackBerry by 63.9% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 9,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 3,811 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Masso Torrence Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in BlackBerry in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Mindset Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in BlackBerry in the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its position in BlackBerry by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 5,008 shares during the period. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.