Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Makes New Investment in Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans bought a new stake in Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 16,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $708,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Braze in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $258,000. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Braze by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 121,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,093,000 after buying an additional 8,100 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Braze by 185.2% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 71,535 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,996,000 after acquiring an additional 46,452 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Braze by 8,436.4% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 939 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 928 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Braze by 38.7% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 11,007 shares of the company’s stock valued at $461,000 after buying an additional 3,071 shares during the period. 90.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Braze Trading Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:BRZE opened at $36.30 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $39.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.04. The company has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a PE ratio of -31.84 and a beta of 1.17. Braze, Inc. has a twelve month low of $29.18 and a twelve month high of $48.33.

Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 27th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $160.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $155.72 million. Braze had a negative net margin of 20.41% and a negative return on equity of 24.88%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.04) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Braze, Inc. will post -0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Braze

In other Braze news, Director Phillip M. Fernandez sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.46, for a total value of $62,190.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 15,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $633,052.74. This represents a 8.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO William Magnuson sold 18,050 shares of Braze stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.82, for a total transaction of $736,801.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 564,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,053,748.12. This trade represents a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 90,970 shares of company stock valued at $3,904,111. 24.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 price target on shares of Braze and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $51.00 price target on shares of Braze in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Raymond James upped their target price on Braze from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Braze from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Braze in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

About Braze

Braze, Inc operates a customer engagement platform that provides interactions between consumers and brands worldwide. The company offers Braze software development kits that automatically manage data ingestion and deliver mobile and web notifications, in-application/in-browser interstitial messages, and content cards; REST API that can be used to import or export data or to trigger workflows between Braze and brands' existing technology stacks; Partner Data Integrations, which allow brands to sync user cohorts from partners; Data Transformation, in which brands can programmatically sync and transform user data; and Braze Cloud Data Ingestion that enables brands to harness their customer data.