Robert W. Baird Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Stock

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) had its price objective lifted by equities researchers at Robert W. Baird from $3.00 to $3.50 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 17.45% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on BB. TD Securities raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $4.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com raised BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. CIBC raised their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on BlackBerry from $2.70 to $2.80 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $3.51.

BlackBerry Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of BB stock opened at $2.98 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.76 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.92 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $2.53 and its 200 day moving average is $2.45. BlackBerry has a 12-month low of $2.01 and a 12-month high of $4.27.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.03. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 3.38% and a negative net margin of 21.66%. The company had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.84 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.01 earnings per share. BlackBerry’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that BlackBerry will post -0.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at BlackBerry

In other news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 15,005 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction dated Saturday, September 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.53, for a total value of $37,962.65. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,226.37. The trade was a 33.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackBerry

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackBerry by 36.2% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 130,114 shares of the company’s stock valued at $323,000 after acquiring an additional 34,615 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in BlackBerry by 7.5% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 130,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $327,000 after purchasing an additional 9,156 shares during the last quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd grew its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 39.0% in the 2nd quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd now owns 1,315,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,262,000 after buying an additional 369,283 shares in the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 508.1% in the 2nd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,144,990 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,862,000 after buying an additional 956,690 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Viewpoint Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the 2nd quarter valued at about $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.48% of the company’s stock.

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.