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

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 782,300 shares, a decline of 11.9% from the November 15th total of 888,200 shares. Currently, 2.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 342,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Raymond James raised their target price on Backblaze from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Craig Hallum boosted 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.

Backblaze Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BLZE traded down $0.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $6.76. 317,684 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 366,559. The company has a market cap of $300.14 million, a PE ratio of -6.09 and a beta of 0.91. Backblaze has a twelve month low of $4.91 and a twelve month high of $12.65. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $6.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $6.42.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $32.54 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.43) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Backblaze will post -1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 10,321 shares of Backblaze stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.42, for a total value of $66,260.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,864,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,971,027.32. The trade was a 0.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Tina Cessna sold 8,874 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.42, for a total value of $56,971.08. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 144,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $928,113.72. This trade represents a 5.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLZE. Verition Fund Management LLC raised its position in shares of Backblaze by 15.4% during the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 2,106 shares during the last quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Backblaze by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. ClariVest Asset Management LLC now owns 75,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $465,000 after purchasing an additional 2,154 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Backblaze by 4.5% in the 3rd 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 position in shares of Backblaze by 84.1% in 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 period. Finally, Atom Investors LP boosted its stake in shares of Backblaze by 27.2% in the 3rd quarter. Atom Investors LP now owns 57,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $366,000 after purchasing an additional 12,230 shares during the last quarter. 54.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.