BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. CIBC dropped their price objective on BlackBerry from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “outperformer” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada set a $3.75 price target on BlackBerry in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price target on BlackBerry from $4.75 to $4.25 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.12.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

Shares of BB opened at $4.36 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $3.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.80 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. BlackBerry has a 52-week low of $2.01 and a 52-week high of $6.24.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 2nd. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $141.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $137.56 million. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.03 EPS. Research analysts forecast that BlackBerry will post -0.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Jennifer Armstrong-Owen sold 29,940 shares of the business’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 value of $89,520.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 42,398 shares in the company, valued at $126,770.02. The trade was a 41.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 37,216 shares of company stock worth $112,025 in the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in BlackBerry by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 823,822 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,106,000 after purchasing an additional 10,667 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 52.1% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 1,182,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,456,000 after purchasing an additional 404,823 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC bought a new stake in BlackBerry in the first quarter worth $418,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp boosted its holdings in BlackBerry by 7.0% in the first quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,086,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,093,000 after acquiring an additional 71,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in BlackBerry by 16.7% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 31,641 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,000 after acquiring an additional 4,525 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.