Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND) Stock Gets Downgrade from Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Blend Labs from “buy” to “hold.” Overall analyst sentiment is “Hold,” with four Buy, three Hold and one Sell rating, and an average price target of $2.82.
• Blend Labs shares opened at $1.18, with a market capitalization of approximately $277.9 million and a recent 52-week range of $0.88 to $3.62.
• Insiders have sold 195,382 shares worth $231,260 over the past 90 days, while institutional investors own 52.56% of the company.

Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND - Get Free Report) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued on Sunday, Wall Street Zen reports.

BLND has been the subject of several other reports. Citigroup restated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Blend Labs in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Blend Labs from $4.00 to $3.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Blend Labs from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "sell (e+)" rating in a research note on Friday, September 25th. Zacks Research raised Blend Labs from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group cut their target price on Blend Labs from $4.50 to $3.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $2.82.

Blend Labs Trading Up 5.9%

NYSE:BLND opened at $1.18 on Friday. The business's 50-day moving average price is $1.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $1.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $277.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.05 and a beta of 1.08. Blend Labs has a 1-year low of $0.88 and a 1-year high of $3.62.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blend Labs

In other news, insider Srinivasan Venkatramani sold 74,705 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.43, for a total value of $106,828.15. Following the sale, the insider owned 236,563 shares of the company's stock, valued at $338,285.09. The trade was a 24.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Nima Ghamsari sold 27,775 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $0.92, for a total value of $25,553.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 7,750,693 shares in the company, valued at $7,130,637.56. This trade represents a 0.36% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 195,382 shares of company stock valued at $231,260. Insiders own 40.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Blend Labs

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capricorn Fund Managers Ltd purchased a new stake in Blend Labs in the first quarter worth $11,049,000. Irenic Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Blend Labs by 3.6% in the second quarter. Irenic Capital Management LP now owns 2,284,101 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,906,000 after acquiring an additional 79,901 shares in the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Blend Labs by 14.0% in the first quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 1,006,289 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,711,000 after acquiring an additional 123,699 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Blend Labs by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 340,757 shares of the company's stock valued at $579,000 after purchasing an additional 21,713 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in Blend Labs by 99.0% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 258,688 shares of the company's stock valued at $440,000 after purchasing an additional 128,677 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.56% of the company's stock.

About Blend Labs

Blend Labs, Inc develops cloud-based software that helps financial institutions digitize and streamline lending and banking processes. Its platform is designed to support customer applications, document collection, underwriting workflows, compliance requirements and other steps involved in delivering financial products.

The company's solutions cover areas including mortgage lending, consumer loans, deposit accounts and other retail banking services. Blend provides configurable tools intended to help banks, credit unions, fintech companies and other lenders create digital customer experiences while connecting front-end applications with back-office systems.

Blend was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.