Short Interest in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Increases By 8.1%

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) saw a large growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,340,000 shares, a growth of 8.1% from the March 31st total of 1,240,000 shares. Approximately 5.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 417,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Backblaze Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ BLZE opened at $9.32 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Backblaze has a 12 month low of $3.50 and a 12 month high of $12.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $383.98 million, a PE ratio of -5.65 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $8.24.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported ($0.30) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by $0.04. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 57.70% and a negative return on equity of 105.94%. The business had revenue of $28.74 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.18 million. Equities analysts expect that Backblaze will post -1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Francis P. Patchel sold 2,396 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.85, for a total value of $25,996.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 184,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,998,190.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Francis P. Patchel sold 2,396 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.85, for a total value of $25,996.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 184,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,998,190.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Tina Cessna sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.95, for a total transaction of $199,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 121,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,204,775.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 81,429 shares of company stock valued at $851,676. Corporate insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cutler Group LLC CA raised its holdings in Backblaze by 553.0% in the 4th quarter. Cutler Group LLC CA now owns 3,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 3,318 shares in the last quarter. AJOVista LLC bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the 4th quarter worth about $67,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the 4th quarter worth about $76,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the 4th quarter worth about $86,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Backblaze in the 3rd quarter worth about $121,000. 54.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Backblaze from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. B. Riley upped their price target on shares of Backblaze from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Backblaze from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th.

About Backblaze

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.