Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) saw a large decrease in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 782,300 shares, a decrease of 11.9% from the November 15th total of 888,200 shares. Approximately 2.3% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 342,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Backblaze Stock Down 4.1 %

BLZE stock traded down $0.29 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $6.76. 317,684 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 366,559. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $6.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.42. Backblaze has a 52 week low of $4.91 and a 52 week high of $12.65. The company has a market cap of $300.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.09 and a beta of 0.91.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.29) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.11) by ($0.18). Backblaze had a negative return on equity of 100.67% and a negative net margin of 37.13%. The business had revenue of $32.59 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $32.54 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.43) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Backblaze will post -1.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Raymond James upped their price target on Backblaze from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th.

Insider Activity at Backblaze

In other news, VP Tina Cessna sold 8,874 shares of Backblaze stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.42, for a total value of $56,971.08. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 144,566 shares in the company, valued at $928,113.72. The trade was a 5.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Gleb Budman sold 10,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.42, for a total transaction of $66,260.82. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,864,646 shares in the company, valued at $11,971,027.32. The trade was a 0.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Backblaze

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Verition Fund Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Backblaze by 15.4% during the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 15,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 2,106 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Backblaze during the 2nd quarter worth $102,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Backblaze by 84.1% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 21,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,000 after acquiring an additional 9,720 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 129.1% in the third quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 24,275 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,000 after purchasing an additional 13,678 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tempus Wealth Planning LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Backblaze in the third quarter valued at about $157,000. 54.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Backblaze Company Profile

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.