Short Interest in BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) Grows By 10.6%

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 47,870,000 shares, a growth of 10.6% from the March 15th total of 43,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 10,050,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.8 days. Currently, 8.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Philip G. Brace bought 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was bought at an average price of $2.79 per share, with a total value of $97,650.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 35,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,650. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.94% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackBerry

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BB. Principal Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackBerry during the first quarter valued at approximately $96,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in BlackBerry by 20.9% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,012,638 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,014,000 after acquiring an additional 348,263 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its position in BlackBerry by 31.6% during the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 34,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $259,000 after acquiring an additional 8,343 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its position in BlackBerry by 62.9% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 12,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 4,974 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in BlackBerry by 26.1% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 549,820 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,080,000 after acquiring an additional 113,962 shares during the last quarter. 54.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BB has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $4.50 to $3.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Raymond James decreased their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $7.00 to $6.50 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $3.00 target price on shares of BlackBerry in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. TD Securities decreased their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $4.00 to $3.75 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $5.00 to $4.25 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackBerry presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.08.

BlackBerry Stock Down 4.4 %

BlackBerry stock opened at $3.05 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.43. BlackBerry has a 1-year low of $2.46 and a 1-year high of $5.75. The company’s 50-day moving average is $2.79 and its 200 day moving average is $3.33.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 3rd. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.06. BlackBerry had a negative net margin of 15.24% and a negative return on equity of 0.24%. The company had revenue of $173.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $150.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.04) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that BlackBerry will post -0.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 CylancePROTECT, an endpoint protection platform and mobile threat defense solution; CylanceOPTICS, an endpoint detection and response solution; CylanceGUARD, a managed detection and response solution; CylanceGATEWAY, an AI-empowered zero-trust network access solution; CylancePERSONA, a user and entity behavior analytics solution; BlackBerry unified endpoint management, a central software component for secure communications platform; BlackBerry Dynamics, a development platform and secure container for mobile applications; and BlackBerry Workspaces solutions.