BlackBerry Jumps as Interest From Reddit Crowd Surges
BlackBerry (BB) - Get Report shares on Monday surged as the Reddit retail-trading crowd boosted its interest in the security-software provider.
The Waterloo, Ontario, company is the second-most cited stock on Reddit’s WallStreetBets page over the past 24 hours, with 487 mentions, Benzinga reports, quoting the investment-data analyst Quiver Quantitative.
First place went to movie-theater chain AMC Entertainment (AMC) - Get Report with 723 mentions. Videogame retailer GameStop (GME) - Get Report placed third with 212 mentions.
BlackBerry recently traded at $10.66, up 5.9%. It has traded on Tuesday up as much as 12% at $11.24. And it has jumped 24% in the past month, benefiting from its meme-stock status.
About 10% of all conversations on Reddit are voicing hopes for a short squeeze on BlackBerry, with another 1% seeing a $20 price target, according to HypeEquity, Bloomberg reports.
BlackBerry’s short interest totals 9% of its shares, according to MarketBeat data, Bloomberg reports. That compares with 21% for both AMC and GameStop.
In March BlackBerry missed analyst fourth-quarter revenue forecasts, as licensing revenue remained in limbo due to ongoing talks to sell part of its patent portfolio.
The company said it earned 3 cents a share in the latest period on adjusted revenue of $215 million.
The company had been expected to report net income of 3 cents a share on sales of $244.8 million, based on a FactSet survey of analysts.
For the year-earlier period, the company posted earnings of 9 cents a share on sales of $291 million.
As for AMC, it soared on Tuesday after selling 8.5 million shares, raising $230 million of fresh capital. It recently traded up 13% at $29.56. GameStop shares were at $236.96, up 6.7%.
