BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Trading 7.9% Higher – Should You Buy?

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB)’s stock price shot up 7.9% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $4.09 and last traded at $4.08. 4,950,038 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 9,804,120 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.78.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BB. TD Cowen upgraded shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target 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 BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com upgraded BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, TD Securities raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $3.60.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.68 and a beta of 1.43. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $2.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $144.84 million. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 21.66% and a negative return on equity of 3.38%. BlackBerry’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.01 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that BlackBerry Limited will post -0.06 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackBerry

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 83.3% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 11,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 5,349 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP bought a new position in BlackBerry during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management acquired a new position in BlackBerry during the second quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in BlackBerry by 65.5% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 22,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 9,063 shares during the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.