Nomura Holdings Inc. Purchases Shares of 40,253 Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE)

Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 40,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,686,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Braze by 21.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,464,161 shares of the company’s stock worth $354,479,000 after buying an additional 1,476,423 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Braze by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,693,357 shares of the company’s stock worth $112,798,000 after buying an additional 63,000 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Braze by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,309,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,711,000 after buying an additional 500,667 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Braze by 121.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,197,407 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,028,000 after buying an additional 1,203,149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Braze by 107.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,963,841 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,246,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015,007 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.47% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Braze

In other news, General Counsel Susan Wiseman sold 4,167 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.98, for a total value of $129,093.66. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 248,999 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,713,989.02. This represents a 1.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Phillip M. Fernandez sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.30, for a total transaction of $61,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,269 shares in the company, valued at approximately $630,609.70. The trade was a 8.95% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 55,937 shares of company stock valued at $2,235,381. 24.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on BRZE. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Braze from $48.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on shares of Braze from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 price target on shares of Braze and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Braze from $55.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Braze from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $50.10.

Braze Stock Performance

Braze stock opened at $36.89 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.86 billion, a P/E ratio of -32.36 and a beta of 1.15. Braze, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.45 and a fifty-two week high of $48.33. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $33.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.88.

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

Braze Company Profile

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.