Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Sets New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after B. Riley Financial raised their price target on the stock from $7.00 to $16.00. B. Riley Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Backblaze traded as high as $10.95 and last traded at $10.5740, with a volume of 11095188 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.12.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Loop Capital set a $8.00 price target on Backblaze in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Citizens Jmp boosted their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $8.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research note on Wednesday. Lake Street Capital raised their target price on shares of Backblaze from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Backblaze from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Backblaze presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.93.

Backblaze News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Backblaze this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Backblaze signed a large five-year, $335 million storage agreement with CoreWeave, which could significantly expand revenue and strengthen its position as an AI cloud storage provider. Backblaze Announces Five-Year Multi-Exabyte Data Storage Agreement with CoreWeave
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple analysts turned more bullish after the CoreWeave deal, including price-target hikes from Citizens JMP and Needham to $14, and Craig Hallum upgrading the stock to buy with a $16 target. Analyst price target raises and upgrades for Backblaze
• Positive Sentiment: Trading volume spiked well above normal, and unusual call option activity suggested traders were positioning for more upside after the announcement. Backblaze (BLZE) Soars 43.6%: Is Further Upside Left in the Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: One market commentary noted that despite the sharp move, further near-term upside may depend on whether earnings estimate revisions continue to improve. Backblaze (BLZE) Soars 43.6%: Is Further Upside Left in the Stock?

Institutional Trading of Backblaze

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Backblaze during the first quarter worth $426,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 17.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 27,094 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,000 after purchasing an additional 4,060 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Backblaze by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 825,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,987,000 after buying an additional 202,609 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Backblaze by 27.1% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 261,610 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,264,000 after buying an additional 55,720 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Backblaze by 13.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,168,558 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,428,000 after buying an additional 139,429 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.03% of the company’s stock.

Backblaze Stock Up 2.7%

The company has a market cap of $719.40 million, a P/E ratio of -30.69 and a beta of 1.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The business’s fifty day moving average is $6.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5.23.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $38.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.78 million. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 14.97% and a negative return on equity of 20.54%. Equities analysts predict that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.33 EPS for the current year.

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. This service is offered as a consumption-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and serves use cases, such as public, hybrid, and multi-cloud data storage; application development and DevOps; content delivery and edge computing; security and ransomware protection; media management; backup, archive, and tape replacement; repository for analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning; and Internet of Things.