Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Price Target Raised to $14.00 at Citizens Jmp

Key Points

• Citizens JMP raised Backblaze’s price target from $8.00 to $14.00 and kept a market outperform rating, implying about 20% upside from the current share price.
• Other analysts have also turned more bullish: Craig Hallum upgraded the stock to buy with a $16 target, and Needham lifted its target to $14 while reiterating a buy rating.
• Backblaze reported better-than-expected quarterly results, posting EPS of $0.04 versus estimates of $0.02 and revenue of $38.67 million versus $37.78 million expected.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) had its price objective increased by analysts at Citizens Jmp from $8.00 to $14.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "market outperform" rating on the stock. Citizens Jmp's target price suggests a potential upside of 20.07% from the stock's current price.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on BLZE. Craig Hallum raised Backblaze from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $6.50 to $16.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Backblaze from $8.50 to $14.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on Backblaze from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Wall Street Zen raised Backblaze from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $8.00 target price on Backblaze in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $11.29.

Backblaze Stock Up 43.6%

Shares of NASDAQ BLZE opened at $11.66 on Wednesday. Backblaze has a 1 year low of $3.26 and a 1 year high of $11.85. The firm has a market cap of $700.77 million, a P/E ratio of -29.90 and a beta of 1.72. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $6.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.02. Backblaze had a negative return on equity of 20.54% and a negative net margin of 14.97%.The business had revenue of $38.67 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.78 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Backblaze will post -0.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 44.6% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,172,657 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,046,000 after buying an additional 361,905 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 56.0% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 300,504 shares of the company's stock worth $1,037,000 after buying an additional 107,876 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze in the first quarter worth about $60,000. State of Wyoming raised its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 17.8% during the first quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 30,980 shares of the company's stock valued at $107,000 after acquiring an additional 4,679 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Backblaze by 152.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 517,586 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,785,000 after acquiring an additional 312,459 shares in the last quarter. 54.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Backblaze News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Backblaze this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Backblaze announced a five-year, multi-exabyte storage agreement with CoreWeave worth $335 million, signaling strong demand for its cloud storage platform and potentially boosting future revenue. Backblaze Announces Five-Year Multi-Exabyte Data Storage Agreement with CoreWeave
• Positive Sentiment: Craig Hallum upgraded Backblaze from hold to buy and lifted its price target to $16 from $6.50, while Needham also raised its target to $14 and reiterated a buy rating, reflecting improved confidence in the company’s outlook. Analyst price target and rating updates
• Positive Sentiment: Shares saw unusual options activity, with call volume surging well above normal, suggesting traders were positioning for further upside on the CoreWeave news. Backblaze Announces Five-Year Multi-Exabyte Data Storage Agreement with CoreWeave
• Neutral Sentiment: William Blair upgraded Backblaze from underperform to market perform, a less bullish move than the other recent analyst actions but still a sign that sentiment is improving. Backblaze upgraded by William Blair

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. 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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