BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Shares Gap Up on Strong Earnings

Shares of BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $4.33, but opened at $4.81. BlackBerry shares last traded at $5.08, with a volume of 13,581,839 shares trading hands.

The company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $121.26 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $112.18 million. BlackBerry had a positive return on equity of 2.29% and a negative net margin of 6.44%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.03) earnings per share.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on BB shares. 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. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $4.25 to $4.60 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $3.75 to $4.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 20th. CIBC reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of BlackBerry in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $4.38.

Insider Transactions at BlackBerry

In other news, SVP Jennifer Armstrong-Owen sold 29,940 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.99, for a total transaction of $89,520.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 42,398 shares in the company, valued at $126,770.02. The trade was a 41.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 37,216 shares of company stock worth $112,025 over the last three months. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BB. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 19.9% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 33,185,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,987,000 after purchasing an additional 5,518,216 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackBerry in the first quarter valued at $95,166,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 69.1% in the first 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. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,084,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,936,000 after purchasing an additional 218,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackBerry in the fourth quarter valued at $53,267,000. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackBerry Stock Up 12.9%

The business has a 50 day moving average of $3.86 and a 200 day moving average of $4.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.72 and a quick ratio of 1.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -81.50 and a beta of 1.45.

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.