Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume on Analyst Upgrade

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) shares saw unusually-high trading volume on Wednesday after Citizens Jmp raised their price target on the stock from $8.00 to $14.00. Citizens Jmp currently has a market outperform rating on the stock. 2,355,011 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 46% from the previous session’s volume of 1,614,403 shares.The stock last traded at $10.8160 and had previously closed at $11.66.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on BLZE. Craig Hallum raised shares of Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $6.50 to $16.00 in a report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Loop Capital set a $8.00 target price on shares of Backblaze in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Backblaze from $8.50 to $14.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Backblaze presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.50.

Key Backblaze News

Here are the key news stories impacting Backblaze this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Backblaze announced a five-year, multi-exabyte storage agreement with CoreWeave worth $335 million, signaling strong demand for its cloud storage platform and potentially boosting future revenue. Backblaze Announces Five-Year Multi-Exabyte Data Storage Agreement with CoreWeave
• Positive Sentiment: Craig Hallum upgraded Backblaze from hold to buy and lifted its price target to $16 from $6.50, while Needham also raised its target to $14 and reiterated a buy rating, reflecting improved confidence in the company’s outlook. Analyst price target and rating updates
• Positive Sentiment: Shares saw unusual options activity, with call volume surging well above normal, suggesting traders were positioning for further upside on the CoreWeave news. Backblaze Announces Five-Year Multi-Exabyte Data Storage Agreement with CoreWeave
• Neutral Sentiment: William Blair upgraded Backblaze from underperform to market perform, a less bullish move than the other recent analyst actions but still a sign that sentiment is improving. Backblaze upgraded by William Blair

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in Backblaze by 1,388.2% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 5,178 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Backblaze during the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. Oxford Asset Management LLP acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze in the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. AXQ Capital LP acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze in the third quarter worth about $96,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp purchased a new position in shares of Backblaze in the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.03% of the company’s stock.

Backblaze Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $6.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $5.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $635.92 million, a PE ratio of -27.29 and a beta of 1.72.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.02. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 14.97% and a negative return on equity of 20.54%. The business had revenue of $38.67 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.78 million. As a group, research analysts predict that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.