Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Sets New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) shares hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $16.60 and last traded at $15.84, with a volume of 2969025 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $15.30.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Backblaze from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Citizens Jmp lifted their target price on Backblaze from $8.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. B. Riley Financial upped their price target on Backblaze from $7.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Craig Hallum raised Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $6.50 to $16.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.93.

Backblaze Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $5.89. The stock has a market cap of $951.98 million, a PE ratio of -40.62 and a beta of 1.55.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $38.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.78 million. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 14.97% and a negative return on equity of 20.54%. Equities analysts anticipate that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLZE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Backblaze by 95.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 351,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,263,000 after purchasing an additional 172,165 shares during the last quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $699,000. Shannon River Fund Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Backblaze during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,129,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its position in shares of Backblaze by 159.7% during the fourth quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 299,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,394,000 after buying an additional 184,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nano Cap New Millennium Growth Fund L P acquired a new stake in shares of Backblaze during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,165,000. 54.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Backblaze Company Profile

Backblaze, Inc, a storage cloud platform, provides businesses and consumers cloud services to store, use, and protect data in the United States and internationally. The company offers cloud services through a web-scale software infrastructure built on commodity hardware. It also provides Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, which enables customers to store data, developers to build applications, and partners to expand their use cases. This service is offered as a consumption-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and serves use cases, such as public, hybrid, and multi-cloud data storage; application development and DevOps; content delivery and edge computing; security and ransomware protection; media management; backup, archive, and tape replacement; repository for analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning; and Internet of Things.