Renaissance Technologies LLC Reduces Position in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE)

Renaissance Technologies LLC trimmed its position in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) by 29.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 138,221 shares of the company’s stock after selling 57,395 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned approximately 0.33% of Backblaze worth $851,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BLZE. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in 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. Scalar Gauge Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,677,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the second quarter worth approximately $701,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the fourth quarter worth approximately $252,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 165.7% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 18,102 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 11,289 shares during the last quarter. 54.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on BLZE shares. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Backblaze from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. Craig Hallum raised their price objective on Backblaze from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

Backblaze Price Performance

BLZE opened at $6.35 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $6.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $7.09. 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 market cap of $263.53 million, a PE ratio of -4.47 and a beta of 1.02. Backblaze, Inc. has a 1 year low of $4.80 and a 1 year high of $12.65.

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 company had revenue of $31.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.93 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.38) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Backblaze news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 4,527 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.45, for a total value of $29,199.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,874,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,093,537.15. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Backblaze news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 4,527 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.45, for a total transaction of $29,199.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,874,967 shares in the company, valued at $12,093,537.15. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Tina Cessna sold 3,894 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.45, for a total value of $25,116.30. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 153,440 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,688. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 47,483 shares of company stock valued at $311,530. 5.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Backblaze

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.