Blackberry posted a strong third-quarter report
The shares of BlackBerry Ltd (NYSE:BB) are down 5.7% at $8.72 this morning, following the company's third-quarter earnings report, which was released after the close yesterday. BlackBerry reported revenue and earnings that beat analysts' estimates, while breaking even on a per share basis. BB noted strong performance for the quarter, bolstered by demand for its cybersecurity and Internet of Things products. Despite the dip, the "meme" stock has once again made the front page of stocktwits.com, as one of the most popular tickers today.
As one of the totems of the retail investing craze, its been a wild year for BlackBerry stock, which still sports a year-to-date lead of 36.5%. The stock does seem to have found support at the $8.50 level, which served as a ceiling for a rally attempt made by BB roughly one year ago, though the 20-day moving average still looms as potential pressure on the charts.
TD Securities today slashed its price target to $8.50 from $9, joining a hesitant brokerage bunch. Not a single analyst considers the stock a "buy," while two "holds," and four "strong sell" ratings are on the table. Meanwhile, the 12-month consensus price target of $8.09 is a 7.9% discount to current levels.
Options traders are coming out in droves following the event, and calls are popular. So far, 41,000 calls and 16,000 puts have exchanged hands, which is five times the intraday average. The most popular is the weekly 12/23 9.50-strike call, followed by the 9-strike call in the same series.