BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $4.06 and last traded at $3.96, with a volume of 1704539 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $3.96.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BB has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com raised BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. CIBC increased their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, TD Securities raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $3.60.

BlackBerry Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.44. The firm has a market cap of $2.38 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.12 and a beta of 1.43. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $2.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.47.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Philip S. Kurtz sold 15,005 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Saturday, September 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.53, for a total transaction of $37,962.65. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $76,226.37. This trade represents a 33.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackBerry in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 83.3% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 11,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 5,349 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of BlackBerry during the third quarter worth $38,000. Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the second quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Viewpoint Capital Management LLC bought a new position in BlackBerry in the second quarter valued at about $50,000. 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.