Traders Buy High Volume of BlackBerry Call Options (NYSE:BB)

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 32,362 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 31% compared to the average volume of 24,701 call options.

BlackBerry Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BB traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $2.52. 26,876,613 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,049,819. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.60. BlackBerry has a 1 year low of $2.01 and a 1 year high of $4.90. The company has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.97 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.43.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.02. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 25.80% and a negative return on equity of 6.43%. The business had revenue of $145.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $138.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.06) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that BlackBerry will post -0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in BlackBerry by 70.1% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 33,801,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,657,000 after acquiring an additional 13,925,510 shares in the last quarter. FIFTHDELTA Ltd grew its position in shares of BlackBerry by 2.3% in the first quarter. FIFTHDELTA Ltd now owns 31,499,858 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,940,000 after purchasing an additional 710,015 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,505,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,835,000 after purchasing an additional 149,444 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its position in BlackBerry by 25.6% during the first quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 12,443,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,343,000 after buying an additional 2,536,966 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in BlackBerry by 9.6% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 10,115,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,920,000 after buying an additional 886,523 shares during the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BB. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $2.70 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on BlackBerry from $3.25 to $2.70 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Raymond James dropped their price target on BlackBerry from $5.50 to $4.75 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $3.20.

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.