1,400,166 Shares in Backblaze, Inc. $BLZE Purchased by AWM Investment Company Inc.

Key Points

• AWM Investment Company acquired 1.4 million Backblaze shares worth approximately $22.2 million, representing about 2.26% of the company and 1.9% of AWM’s portfolio. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 54.03% of Backblaze.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive, with eight Buy ratings, one Hold, and one Sell. Backblaze has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.71.
• Backblaze exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.08 in EPS versus a $0.02 estimate and revenue of $42.71 million versus $39.94 million expected. Despite the beat, the company remains unprofitable, with a negative 13.07% net margin.

AWM Investment Company Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,400,166 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $22,207,000. Backblaze comprises 1.9% of AWM Investment Company Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. AWM Investment Company Inc. owned approximately 2.26% of Backblaze as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Globeflex Capital L P purchased a new position in Backblaze during the second quarter worth about $323,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Backblaze in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,074,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Backblaze in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $237,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Backblaze by 44.6% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,172,657 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,046,000 after purchasing an additional 361,905 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Backblaze by 56.0% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 300,504 shares of the company's stock worth $1,037,000 after purchasing an additional 107,876 shares during the period. 54.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Marc Suidan sold 2,110 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total transaction of $33,380.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 349,518 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,529,374.76. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Gleb Budman sold 12,855 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total transaction of $203,366.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,192,103 shares of the company's stock, valued at $34,679,069.46. This trade represents a 0.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 4.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on BLZE. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $14.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating on shares of Backblaze in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. William Blair raised Backblaze from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $19.71.

Backblaze Stock Performance

Backblaze stock opened at $15.28 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $15.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.64. Backblaze, Inc. has a 52 week low of $3.26 and a 52 week high of $23.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $945.83 million, a P/E ratio of -44.94 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $42.71 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $39.94 million. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 13.07% and a negative return on equity of 16.73%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Backblaze 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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