Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Shares Up 8.6% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Backblaze shares rose 8.6% to approximately $13.72 during Friday trading, reaching an intraday high of $14.71.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive: eight analysts rate the stock a Buy, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $13.21. Several firms recently raised targets to $16.
• Backblaze exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.04 in EPS versus a $0.02 estimate and revenue of $38.67 million versus $37.78 million expected, though the company remains unprofitable.

Shares of Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) shot up 8.6% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $14.71 and last traded at $13.7160. 568,489 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 1,936,045 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.63.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on BLZE shares. B. Riley Financial lifted their target price on shares of Backblaze from $7.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Craig Hallum upgraded Backblaze from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $6.50 to $16.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Lake Street Capital raised 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. Citizens Jmp lifted their price objective on Backblaze from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Backblaze from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "sell (e+)" rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $13.21.

Backblaze Stock Up 7.7%

The firm's 50-day moving average price is $11.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $6.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $817.24 million, a PE ratio of -34.74 and a beta of 1.55.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $38.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $37.78 million. Backblaze had a negative return on equity of 20.54% and a negative net margin of 14.97%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BLZE. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 5,178 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Backblaze in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. Oxford Asset Management LLP acquired a new stake in Backblaze in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. M&T Bank Corp purchased a new position in Backblaze during the 4th quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP purchased a new position in Backblaze during the 2nd quarter valued at about $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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