Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Stock Jumps 5.2% – Here’s What Happened

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) shares shot up 5.2% during trading on Monday. The company traded as high as $9.23 and last traded at $9.05. 313,806 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 2,089,984 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.60.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BLZE. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Lake Street Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of Backblaze in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $6.50 to $16.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $16.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 10th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.71.

Backblaze Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.22.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.06. Backblaze had a negative return on equity of 16.73% and a negative net margin of 13.07%. The company had revenue of $42.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.94 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Backblaze

In related news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 12,855 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total value of $203,366.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,192,103 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,679,069.46. This represents a 0.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Marc Suidan sold 2,110 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total value of $33,380.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 349,518 shares in the company, valued at $5,529,374.76. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 4.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AWM Investment Company Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze in the 2nd quarter valued at $22,207,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Backblaze by 44.6% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,172,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,046,000 after purchasing an additional 361,905 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Backblaze by 152.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 517,586 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,785,000 after purchasing an additional 312,459 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Backblaze during the 2nd quarter worth $3,074,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its stake in Backblaze by 385.1% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 155,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,465,000 after purchasing an additional 123,382 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.03% of the company’s stock.

About Backblaze

Backblaze, Inc provides cloud storage and data backup services for businesses, developers, and individual customers. Its platform is designed to help organizations store, protect, manage, and access data without maintaining their own extensive physical storage infrastructure.

The company’s primary offerings include Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, an object storage service for applications, backup systems, content delivery, and data-intensive workloads, and Backblaze Computer Backup, which automatically backs up data from computers.