Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Receives $19.71 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation and eight have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $19.7143.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BLZE. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research note on Monday, September 14th. William Blair upgraded Backblaze from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Backblaze from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Craig Hallum raised Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $6.50 to $16.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Backblaze in a report on Wednesday, August 12th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Marc Suidan sold 2,110 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total transaction 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. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 Backblaze stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total transaction 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 approximately $34,679,069.46. The trade was a 0.58% 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. Corporate insiders own 4.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $295,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Backblaze during the second quarter worth approximately $77,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its holdings in Backblaze by 385.1% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 155,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,465,000 after purchasing an additional 123,382 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Backblaze by 83.8% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,726 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 787 shares during the period. Finally, AXQ Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Backblaze in the second quarter worth $314,000. 54.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Backblaze Price Performance

NASDAQ BLZE opened at $13.16 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $814.60 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.70 and a beta of 1.56. Backblaze has a 52-week low of $3.26 and a 52-week high of $23.99.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $42.71 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $39.94 million. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 13.07% and a negative return on equity of 16.73%. Equities research analysts predict that Backblaze will post -0.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Backblaze Company Profile

Backblaze, Inc provides cloud storage and data backup services for businesses, developers and individual users. Its platform is designed to help customers store, protect, manage and recover data through scalable cloud-based infrastructure.

The company’s principal offerings include Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, an object-storage service used for applications, content distribution, backup, archiving and disaster recovery, and Backblaze Computer Backup, which helps individuals and organizations back up data from computers.