Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $32.00 to $33.00. The stock had previously closed at $18.02, but opened at $22.54. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Braze shares last traded at $21.7930, with a volume of 3,536,061 shares traded.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Braze from $43.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. BTIG Research dropped their price objective on shares of Braze from $45.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $40.00 target price on Braze in a report on Monday, February 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Braze from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Braze from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Twenty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Braze has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.19.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Braze news, CEO William Magnuson sold 26,413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.93, for a total value of $447,172.09. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 4,491,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,034,289.14. This trade represents a 0.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Astha Malik sold 14,049 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.93, for a total transaction of $237,849.57. Following the sale, the insider owned 205,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,475,542.77. The trade was a 6.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 60,676 shares of company stock valued at $1,027,661 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 18.20% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Braze

Here are the key news stories impacting Braze this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 revenue beat and strong growth outlook — Revenue came in at $205.17M (up ~27.9% YoY) and topped consensus; management emphasized AI-driven momentum and raised forward revenue expectations, which drove the post-earnings rally. Businesswire: Q4 Results
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple buy ratings/reaffirmations remain — Needham reaffirmed a buy with a $50 PT and Canaccord issued a buy, both supporting upside case despite volatility. These stand as potential support for the stock if execution continues. Benzinga: Needham Reaffirmed AmericanBankingNews: Canaccord Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Full materials and call transcripts available — Slides, press release and call transcripts were posted (useful for modeling guidance and margin trajectory). Slide Deck / Press Release Seeking Alpha: Call Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest reporting appears unreliable — Several entries show anomalous “0 shares/NaN” figures; treat short-interest signals with caution until clearer data is published.
• Negative Sentiment: EPS miss — Reported EPS was $0.10, below consensus (~$0.14 / $0.115), which raises near-term profitability concerns despite top-line strength. MarketBeat: Earnings Details
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst price-target cuts — Citizens JMP lowered its PT from $68 to $35 (still “market outperform”) and Piper Sandler cut its PT to $27; these reductions are pressuring sentiment despite the continued “buy/overweight” stances. Benzinga: PT Cuts

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Braze

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BRZE. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Braze by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,851,050 shares of the company’s stock valued at $337,793,000 after acquiring an additional 892,635 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Braze by 10.8% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 2,687,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,445,000 after purchasing an additional 261,351 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Braze by 6.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,455,367 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,831,000 after purchasing an additional 139,133 shares in the last quarter. Battery Management CORP. raised its holdings in Braze by 70.2% in the third quarter. Battery Management CORP. now owns 2,425,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,967,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in shares of Braze by 28.8% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,320,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,197,000 after purchasing an additional 518,103 shares in the last quarter. 90.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Braze Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $2.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -19.79 and a beta of 1.08. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $19.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.57.

Braze Company Profile

Braze, Inc is a publicly traded software company (NASDAQ: BRZE) that offers a customer engagement platform designed to help brands build personalized relationships with their users. Founded in 2011 as Appboy by Bill Magnuson, Jon Hyman and Mark Ghermezian, the company adopted the Braze name in 2017 to underscore its focus on fostering strong connections between businesses and consumers. Its cloud-based platform consolidates messaging channels including push notifications, in-app messages, email and SMS, enabling companies to deliver timely, context-driven communications at scale.

The core functionality of Braze’s platform centers on data-driven segmentation, customer journey orchestration and real-time analytics.