Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) saw a significant 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. Currently, 3.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 244,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.4 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on BLZE. Raymond James raised their target price on Backblaze from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Craig Hallum raised their target price on Backblaze from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their target price on Backblaze from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 9th.

Backblaze Stock Down 4.3 %

Backblaze stock traded down $0.28 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $6.28. The stock had a trading volume of 174,247 shares, compared to its average volume of 340,531. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.54. Backblaze has a fifty-two week low of $4.91 and a fifty-two week high of $12.65. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $6.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $269.41 million, a PE ratio of -5.66 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 153,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $989,688. This trade represents a 2.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Francis P. Patchel sold 13,107 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.55, for a total value of $85,850.85. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 159,116 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,042,209.80. This represents a 7.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 31,483 shares of company stock valued at $202,890. Company insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 15.4% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 2,106 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the second quarter valued at approximately $102,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 84.1% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 21,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $131,000 after purchasing an additional 9,720 shares in the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the first quarter valued at approximately $154,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 129.1% in the third quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 24,275 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,000 after purchasing an additional 13,678 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.03% of the company’s stock.

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.