Braze, Inc. $BRZE Shares Sold by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Key Points

• Pictet Asset Management cut its Braze stake by 24.7% in the third quarter, selling 1.25 million shares; it retained about 3.8 million shares, worth $95.4 million.
• Analyst sentiment is mostly cautious: 17 analysts rate BRZE Hold, five Buy and one Sell, with a consensus price target of $43.95. Oppenheimer and Loop Capital downgraded the stock to Market Perform and Hold, respectively.
• Braze beat quarterly estimates, reporting EPS of $0.19 versus $0.16 expected and revenue up 26.2% year over year to $227.23 million. Insiders sold 456,869 shares over the past 90 days.

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA trimmed its stake in shares of Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE - Free Report) by 24.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,800,808 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,248,415 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned about 3.35% of Braze worth $95,400,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BRZE. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in Braze by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 16,231 shares of the company's stock valued at $407,000 after purchasing an additional 1,816 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc. acquired a new stake in Braze in the third quarter worth $210,000. State of Wyoming increased its position in Braze by 103.5% in the third quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 6,037 shares of the company's stock worth $152,000 after buying an additional 3,070 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its position in Braze by 840.2% in the third quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 3,159 shares of the company's stock worth $79,000 after buying an additional 2,823 shares during the period. Finally, Capstone Capital Management Ltd lifted its stake in Braze by 306.7% in the third quarter. Capstone Capital Management Ltd now owns 47,986 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,204,000 after buying an additional 36,186 shares during the last quarter. 90.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BRZE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Braze from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Mizuho set a $47.50 price objective on shares of Braze in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Braze from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $47.50 price objective on shares of Braze in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Finally, Loop Capital lowered shares of Braze from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $47.50 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Braze currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $43.95.

Insider Activity

In related news, CTO Jonathan Hyman sold 285,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.33, for a total value of $12,919,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 848,219 shares of the company's stock, valued at $38,449,767.27. This represents a 25.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CRO Edward M. Mcdonnell sold 29,732 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.38, for a total transaction of $932,990.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive owned 409,630 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,854,189.40. This represents a 6.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 456,869 shares of company stock valued at $18,540,085. Company insiders own 12.50% of the company's stock.

Braze Stock Up 0.6%

BRZE opened at $46.08 on Tuesday. Braze, Inc. has a 12 month low of $15.26 and a 12 month high of $46.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The stock has a market cap of $5.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -44.74 and a beta of 0.77. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $32.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $25.25.

Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, September 8th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.03. Braze had a negative return on equity of 16.11% and a negative net margin of 13.55%. The firm had revenue of $227.23 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $220.27 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.15 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 26.2% on a year-over-year basis. Braze has set its FY 2027 guidance at 0.640-0.650 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 0.130-0.140 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Braze, Inc. will post -0.70 earnings per share for the current year.

Braze Profile

Braze, Inc provides a cloud-based customer engagement platform that helps businesses communicate with customers through personalized, interactive experiences. Its software enables companies to use customer data to create and manage campaigns across channels such as email, mobile push notifications, in-app messages, web messaging and SMS.

The Braze platform includes tools for audience segmentation, campaign and customer-journey orchestration, personalization and performance analysis. Businesses use these capabilities to coordinate communications and adapt them based on customer behavior and preferences.

Founded in 2011 as Appboy, the company adopted the Braze name in 2017.

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