Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to Buy Rating

Key Points

• Backblaze was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from hold to buy, adding to a generally positive analyst outlook on the stock. The broader consensus from analysts is now a Moderate Buy with an average target price of $8.00.
• The company recently beat earnings expectations for its latest quarter, reporting $0.04 EPS versus the $0.02 estimate and revenue of $38.67 million, slightly ahead of forecasts. However, Backblaze still posted negative profitability metrics, including a negative net margin and negative return on equity.
• Institutional interest has increased, with several firms significantly adding to or initiating positions in Backblaze. Institutional investors now own 54.03% of the company’s shares.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on BLZE. Loop Capital set a $8.00 price objective on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Citigroup reiterated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $6.00 to $8.50 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Lake Street Capital increased their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $8.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Backblaze currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $8.00.

Backblaze Price Performance

BLZE stock opened at $7.48 on Friday. Backblaze has a 52 week low of $3.26 and a 52 week high of $10.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $449.55 million, a P/E ratio of -19.18 and a beta of 1.41.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.02. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 14.97% and a negative return on equity of 20.54%. The business had revenue of $38.67 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.78 million. Analysts anticipate that Backblaze will post -0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BLZE. Wasatch Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Backblaze in the 3rd quarter worth about $17,021,000. Pillsbury Lake Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Backblaze in the 4th quarter worth about $8,058,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 94.5% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 810,752 shares of the company's stock worth $3,778,000 after acquiring an additional 393,936 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings 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 worth $1,785,000 after acquiring an additional 312,459 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 165.9% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 480,281 shares of the company's stock worth $4,457,000 after acquiring an additional 299,672 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. 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.