BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is transferring its U.S. stock listing from the NASDAQ to the New York Stock Exchange. The plan to move the BlackBerry stock listing to the NYSE was announced in a press release this morning.
Upon moving to the New York Stock Exchange, BlackBerry will trade with the ticker symbol “BB” instead of the current “BBRY,” as it is traded on the NASDAQ. The new BlackBerry stock listing on the NYSE will go into effect on Oct. 16, but until then, the shares will continue to trade on the NASDAQ. The company’s listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange will not be affected by the switch. BlackBerry management didn’t give much of a reason for the move.
“Many of the world’s greatest brands, including a large number of our customers and partners, are listed on the NYSE, and we look forward to joining them,” Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen said in a statement about the BlackBerry stock listing move. “As we continue to advance our growth strategy, we believe that our partnership with the NYSE will further raise the profile of our company and strengthen the value of our BlackBerry Secure brand.”
Representatives from the company will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 16 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern to celebrate the BlackBerry stock listing move.
BlackBerry stock declined by as much as 2.12% to $11.10 on the NASDAQ during regular trading hours on Tuesday. The stock is up by approximately 20% for the last week as investors cheered the company’s surprise adjusted profit and analysts started to consider that the transformation into a full-fledged software firm might be complete.
In a note to investors following BlackBerry’s earnings report late last month, BMO Capital analyst Tim Long maintained his Market Perform rating and $10 price target. He said the majority of the upside in the company’s results was from up-front licensing payments. Although the company expect those payments to repeat for another deal in the second half of fiscal 2018, he warned that these payments are “mostly unpredictable otherwise.”
Meanwhile, it looks like a new round of executive departures could be getting underway at BlackBerry, as the company’s patent licensing chief, Mark Kokes, reportedly left for NantWorks, a privately-held health technology company. Reuters reported the news of his departure on Monday, citing sources with knowledge of it. Kokes’ departure for NantWorks follows that of Ron Louks, who had been president of BlackBerry’s devices and emerging solutions division.
