Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Stock Falls 8.4% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) were down 8.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The stock traded as low as $11.72 and last traded at $11.4620. Approximately 394,499 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 81% from the average daily volume of 2,072,720 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.51.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on BLZE. Citizens Jmp boosted their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $16.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Lake Street Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Backblaze in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 10th. Craig Hallum upgraded Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $6.50 to $16.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, B. Riley Financial lifted their price target on Backblaze from $16.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.71.

Backblaze Stock Performance

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $14.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market cap of $613.43 million, a PE ratio of -29.15 and a beta of 1.56.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $42.71 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.94 million. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 13.07% and a negative return on equity of 16.73%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 12,855 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total transaction of $203,366.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,192,103 shares in the company, valued at $34,679,069.46. The trade was a 0.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Marc Suidan sold 2,110 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total value of $33,380.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 349,518 shares in the company, valued at $5,529,374.76. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Corporate insiders own 4.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BLZE. AWM Investment Company Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze during the second quarter valued at about $22,207,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Backblaze by 44.6% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,172,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,046,000 after purchasing an additional 361,905 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Backblaze by 152.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 517,586 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,785,000 after purchasing an additional 312,459 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Backblaze in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,074,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its position in Backblaze by 385.1% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 155,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,465,000 after purchasing an additional 123,382 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.03% of the company’s stock.

Backblaze Company Profile

Backblaze, Inc provides cloud storage and data backup services for businesses, developers, and individual customers. Its platform is designed to help organizations store, protect, manage, and access data without maintaining their own extensive physical storage infrastructure.

The company’s primary offerings include Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, an object storage service for applications, backup systems, content delivery, and data-intensive workloads, and Backblaze Computer Backup, which automatically backs up data from computers.