Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Stock Gets Price Target Cut from Needham & Company LLC

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) had its target price reduced by Needham & Company LLC from $23.00 to $15.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on BLZE. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Backblaze from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Tuesday. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Backblaze in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Backblaze from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.57.

Backblaze Price Performance

NASDAQ BLZE opened at $7.59 on Tuesday. Backblaze has a 52 week low of $3.26 and a 52 week high of $23.99. The company has a current ratio of 3.17, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.82. The stock has a market cap of $469.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.48 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $11.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.26.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 2nd. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $46.65 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.59 million. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 11.47% and a negative return on equity of 13.34%. Analysts forecast that Backblaze will post -0.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Backblaze

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

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

About Backblaze

Backblaze, Inc provides cloud storage and data backup services for businesses, developers and individual users. The company’s offerings are designed to help customers protect, store, manage and access data without maintaining their own extensive storage infrastructure.

Its primary products include Backblaze Computer Backup, a subscription service that automatically backs up data from computers, and Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, an object-storage platform used for applications such as backup, archiving, content storage and media workflows.