Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Given Consensus Rating of "Buy" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) has received an average analyst rating of "Buy", with six analysts recommending a buy and one giving a strong buy rating, alongside a price target of $10.0714.
• In the second quarter, several institutional investors increased their stakes in Backblaze, with notable increases from XTX Topco Ltd (9.6%) and Rhumbline Advisers (67.4%), indicating growing institutional confidence in the company.
• Backblaze reported a net loss of ($0.12) EPS for the last quarter, missing expectations, but outperformed revenue expectations with $36.30 million in revenue compared to the forecast of $35.41 million.

Shares of Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Buy" from the seven brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $10.0714.

Several research firms have issued reports on BLZE. Citizens Jmp began coverage on Backblaze in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. They issued a "strong-buy" rating and a $7.00 price target on the stock. JMP Securities lifted their price target on Backblaze from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Backblaze from $7.00 to $8.50 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th.

Backblaze Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of BLZE traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $7.68. The stock had a trading volume of 415,210 shares, compared to its average volume of 616,052. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $5.55. Backblaze has a twelve month low of $3.94 and a twelve month high of $8.16. The firm has a market cap of $433.92 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.63 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.07). Backblaze had a negative net margin of 31.72% and a negative return on equity of 54.88%. The firm had revenue of $36.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.41 million. On average, analysts anticipate that Backblaze will post -1.02 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BLZE. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury acquired a new position in Backblaze during the second quarter worth approximately $139,000. Man Group plc increased its position in Backblaze by 205.8% during the second quarter. Man Group plc now owns 89,073 shares of the company's stock worth $490,000 after buying an additional 59,949 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Backblaze by 263.5% during the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 289,461 shares of the company's stock worth $1,592,000 after buying an additional 209,838 shares during the last quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its position in Backblaze by 20.7% during the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 60,486 shares of the company's stock worth $333,000 after buying an additional 10,380 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Backblaze by 13.9% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 56,245 shares of the company's stock worth $309,000 after buying an additional 6,867 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.03% of the company's stock.

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.