Short Interest in BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) Expands By 7.1%

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 29,500,000 shares, an increase of 7.1% from the December 15th total of 27,540,000 shares. Currently, 5.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 13,000,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days.

BlackBerry Stock Down 5.3 %

BlackBerry stock traded down $0.23 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $3.99. The company had a trading volume of 17,287,846 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,549,552. BlackBerry has a fifty-two week low of $2.01 and a fifty-two week high of $4.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -18.11 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $3.17 and its 200-day moving average is $2.66.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.84 million. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. BlackBerry’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.01 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that BlackBerry will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com raised BlackBerry from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. TD Cowen raised shares of BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. CIBC raised their target price on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $3.69.

Insider Activity

In other BlackBerry news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 29,402 shares of BlackBerry stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total value of $117,608.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 490,761 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,963,044. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total value of $53,268.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 238,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $878,923.84. This trade represents a 5.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 219,796 shares of company stock worth $823,314. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackBerry

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in BlackBerry in the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in 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 in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP bought a new stake in BlackBerry in the third quarter worth approximately $38,000. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackBerry during the 4th quarter worth $65,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackBerry by 60.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 20,769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 7,842 shares in 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.