Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Short Interest Down 33.7% in August

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of August. As of August 14th, there was short interest totaling 1,787,453 shares, a decline of 33.7% from the July 30th total of 2,694,870 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 4,057,580 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.4 days. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Backblaze Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BLZE opened at $13.53 on Wednesday. Backblaze has a 1-year low of $3.26 and a 1-year high of $23.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $837.51 million, a P/E ratio of -39.79 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $15.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.00.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.06. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 13.07% and a negative return on equity of 16.73%. The firm had revenue of $42.71 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.94 million. Equities analysts predict that Backblaze will post -0.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Marc Suidan sold 2,110 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total value of $33,380.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 349,518 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,529,374.76. This trade represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Gleb Budman sold 12,855 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 $203,366.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 4.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Backblaze by 5.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,693,508 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,996,000 after purchasing an additional 134,034 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Backblaze in the 3rd quarter valued at $17,021,000. Pillsbury Lake Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Backblaze in the 4th quarter valued at $8,058,000. Whetstone Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Backblaze by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Whetstone Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,520,055 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,083,000 after buying an additional 59,263 shares during the period. Finally, AWM Investment Company Inc. acquired a new stake in Backblaze during the 2nd quarter worth $22,207,000. Institutional investors own 54.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on BLZE shares. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $16.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Lake Street Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Backblaze in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upped their target price on shares of Backblaze from $16.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Eight research 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, Backblaze presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.71.

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.