Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Short Interest Down 11.3% in September

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,330,000 shares, a decrease of 11.3% from the August 31st total of 1,500,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 379,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days. Currently, 4.6% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Transactions at Backblaze

In other Backblaze news, Director Barbara H. Nelson sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total value of $108,640.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 62,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $423,329.34. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO Francis P. Patchel sold 13,107 shares of Backblaze stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.55, for a total transaction of $85,850.85. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 159,116 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,042,209.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Barbara H. Nelson sold 16,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.79, for a total value of $108,640.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 62,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $423,329.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 47,483 shares of company stock worth $311,530. 5.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 117.0% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 689,599 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,052,000 after purchasing an additional 371,851 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Backblaze by 50.6% in the 2nd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 1,094,490 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,742,000 after acquiring an additional 367,500 shares in the last quarter. Scalar Gauge Management LLC acquired a new stake in Backblaze during the 4th quarter worth about $1,677,000. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new stake in Backblaze during the 1st quarter worth about $2,048,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Backblaze during the 2nd quarter valued at about $701,000. 54.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BLZE shares. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Backblaze from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. Craig Hallum increased their price target on Backblaze from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th.

Backblaze Price Performance

Shares of BLZE traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $6.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 298,372 shares, compared to its average volume of 363,069. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $6.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.29. Backblaze has a fifty-two week low of $4.80 and a fifty-two week high of $12.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $264.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.49 and a beta of 1.01.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by ($0.13). Backblaze had a negative return on equity of 104.71% and a negative net margin of 42.34%. The business had revenue of $31.29 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.93 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.38) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Backblaze will post -0.99 EPS 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.