808,668 Backblaze, Inc. $BLZE Shares Purchased by Halter Ferguson Financial Inc.

Halter Ferguson Financial Inc. raised its position in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) by 176.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,266,421 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 808,668 shares during the period. Backblaze comprises about 3.1% of Halter Ferguson Financial Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Halter Ferguson Financial Inc.’s holdings in Backblaze were worth $17,717,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Transactions at Backblaze

In other news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 12,855 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 transaction of $203,366.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,192,103 shares in the company, valued at $34,679,069.46. This represents a 0.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The stock was 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 approximately $5,529,374.76. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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.

Backblaze Stock Performance

NASDAQ BLZE opened at $9.34 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $13.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.26. Backblaze, Inc. has a twelve month low of $3.26 and a twelve month high of $23.99. The company has a market capitalization of $578.15 million, a PE ratio of -27.47 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.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on BLZE shares. B. Riley Financial upped 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. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Citizens Jmp lifted their target price on shares of Backblaze from $16.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Backblaze from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Backblaze in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Backblaze presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.71.

Backblaze Profile

Backblaze, Inc provides cloud storage and data backup services for businesses, developers and individual users. The company’s offerings are designed to help customers protect, store, manage and access data without maintaining their own extensive storage infrastructure.

Its primary products include Backblaze Computer Backup, a subscription service that automatically backs up data from computers, and Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, an object-storage platform used for applications such as backup, archiving, content storage and media workflows.