Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Short Interest Update

Key Points

• Backblaze short interest jumped sharply in June, rising 83.8% to 2.75 million shares as of June 30. That represents about 4.8% of the company’s stock and a very short 0.3-day short-interest ratio.
• Analyst sentiment remains mostly positive, with several firms raising price targets to $14-$16 and maintaining Buy-equivalent ratings. Overall, Backblaze has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy with an average target price of $12.93.
• The company recently beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $0.04 EPS versus $0.02 expected and revenue of $38.67 million versus $37.78 million forecast. However, Backblaze still posted negative margins and analysts expect a full-year loss.

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,754,152 shares, an increase of 83.8% from the June 15th total of 1,498,619 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 8,229,493 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.3 days. Approximately 4.8% of the company's stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on BLZE shares. Citizens Jmp boosted their price objective on Backblaze from $8.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. B. Riley Financial increased their target price on Backblaze from $7.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Backblaze from $8.50 to $14.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Lake Street Capital boosted their price target on Backblaze from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Backblaze from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Backblaze currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $12.93.

Backblaze Stock Performance

Backblaze stock opened at $13.73 on Friday. Backblaze has a 12-month low of $3.26 and a 12-month high of $18.25. The company has a market capitalization of $825.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.21 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $10.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.45.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $38.67 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $37.78 million. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 14.97% and a negative return on equity of 20.54%. On average, research analysts forecast that Backblaze will post -0.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in Backblaze by 1,388.2% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,551 shares of the company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 5,178 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Oxford Asset Management LLP purchased a new position in shares of Backblaze during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $47,000. M&T Bank Corp purchased a new position in shares of Backblaze during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Finally, Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Backblaze during the second quarter worth approximately $58,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.03% of the company's stock.

Backblaze Company Profile

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. This service is offered as a consumption-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and serves use cases, such as public, hybrid, and multi-cloud data storage; application development and DevOps; content delivery and edge computing; security and ransomware protection; media management; backup, archive, and tape replacement; repository for analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning; and Internet of Things.

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