Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,070,000 shares, a decrease of 16.4% from the October 15th total of 1,280,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 244,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days. Currently, 3.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Backblaze Stock Performance

NASDAQ BLZE traded down $0.28 during trading on Friday, reaching $6.28. 174,401 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 340,531. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.54 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $6.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $269.41 million, a P/E ratio of -5.66 and a beta of 0.99. Backblaze has a fifty-two week low of $4.91 and a fifty-two week high of $12.65.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.29) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by ($0.18). Backblaze had a negative return on equity of 100.67% and a negative net margin of 37.13%. The business had revenue of $32.59 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $32.54 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.43) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Backblaze will post -0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BLZE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Craig Hallum increased their price target on Backblaze from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Backblaze from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Backblaze news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 4,527 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.45, for a total value of $29,199.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,874,967 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,093,537.15. The trade was a 0.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Tina Cessna sold 3,894 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.45, for a total transaction of $25,116.30. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 153,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,688. This represents a 2.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,483 shares of company stock valued at $202,890. Company insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of BLZE. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in Backblaze by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 2,106 shares during the last quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Backblaze by 2.9% in the second quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC now owns 75,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $465,000 after purchasing an additional 2,154 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Backblaze by 4.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 118,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $755,000 after purchasing an additional 5,098 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Backblaze by 84.1% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 21,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,000 after purchasing an additional 9,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Backblaze by 165.7% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 18,102 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,000 after purchasing an additional 11,289 shares during the period. 54.03% of the stock is owned by 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.