Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND) Stock Price

Key Points

• Wells Fargo cut its Blend Labs price target from $3 to $2 but maintained an Overweight rating; the revised target still implies about 112% upside from the stock’s reported $0.94 price.
• Shares fell 17.2% on Friday. Analysts’ average rating is Hold, with a consensus price target of $2.40.
• Blend reported quarterly revenue of $32.91 million, slightly above expectations, and a loss of $0.02 per share. Insiders sold 239,072 shares over the past three months.

Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND - Get Free Report) had its price objective cut by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $3.00 to $2.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "overweight" rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company's target price indicates a potential upside of 111.86% from the stock's current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on BLND. Zacks Research upgraded Blend Labs from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $3.00 target price on Blend Labs in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings cut Blend Labs from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "sell (e+)" rating in a research note on Friday, September 25th. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price target on shares of Blend Labs from $4.50 to $3.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Blend Labs in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $2.40.

Blend Labs Trading Down 17.2%

NYSE BLND traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $0.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 774,786 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,023,518. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $1.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.60. Blend Labs has a 52 week low of $0.85 and a 52 week high of $3.44. The stock has a market cap of $223.27 million, a PE ratio of -10.58 and a beta of 1.05.

Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $32.91 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $32.47 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that Blend Labs will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blend Labs

In other news, insider Srinivasan Venkatramani sold 74,705 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.43, for a total transaction of $106,828.15. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 236,563 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $338,285.09. This trade represents a 24.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through 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 Blend Labs stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $0.92, for a total transaction of $25,553.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 7,750,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,130,637.56. This represents a 0.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 239,072 shares of company stock valued at $281,085. Company insiders own 40.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Blend Labs

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in shares of Blend Labs in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $225,000. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Blend Labs by 99.0% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 258,688 shares of the company's stock valued at $440,000 after acquiring an additional 128,677 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in shares of Blend Labs in the second quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Blend Labs by 14.0% during 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 during the period. Finally, Irenic Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Blend Labs by 3.6% during 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 during the period. 52.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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