Virtus Advisers LLC Invests $233,000 in Backblaze, Inc. $BLZE

Key Points

• Virtus Advisers LLC has acquired a new stake in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE), purchasing 48,203 shares valued at approximately $233,000, representing about 0.09% ownership.
• Several institutional investors have also increased their holdings in Backblaze, with AWM Investment Company lifting its position by 2,664.4%, now owning nearly 2.8 million shares worth $16.8 million.
• Backblaze reported a quarterly loss of $0.12 EPS, missing analyst estimates of a $0.05 loss, while also achieving revenue of $36.3 million, surpassing expectations.

Virtus Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 48,203 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $233,000. Virtus Advisers LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Backblaze at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of Backblaze by 300.9% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 7,052 shares of the company's stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 5,293 shares in the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Backblaze during the first quarter valued at $48,000. Corton Capital Inc. acquired a new position in Backblaze during the first quarter valued at $52,000. ProShare Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Backblaze during the fourth quarter valued at $68,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd increased its position in Backblaze by 135.3% in the 1st quarter. R Squared Ltd now owns 14,730 shares of the company's stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 8,470 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 54.03% of the company's stock.

Backblaze Trading Down 0.6%

BLZE traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $8.35. The stock had a trading volume of 528,064 shares, compared to its average volume of 756,331. The stock has a market capitalization of $471.78 million, a P/E ratio of -9.38 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $6.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.65. Backblaze, Inc. has a 52 week low of $3.94 and a 52 week high of $8.65.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $36.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $35.41 million. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 31.72% and a negative return on equity of 54.88%. Backblaze has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Backblaze, Inc. will post -1.02 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on BLZE. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Backblaze from $7.00 to $8.50 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. JMP Securities increased their target price on Backblaze from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp began coverage on Backblaze in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. They issued a "strong-buy" rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and six have assigned a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $10.07.

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.