Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) CEO Sells 12,855 Shares

Key Points

• CEO Gleb Budman sold 12,855 Backblaze shares for approximately $203,366 to cover tax withholding tied to vested equity awards, reducing his stake by 0.58% to 2.19 million shares.
• Backblaze reported quarterly EPS of $0.08, beating estimates of $0.02, while revenue of $42.71 million exceeded the $39.94 million consensus forecast. The company remains unprofitable, with a negative 13.07% net margin.
• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus, with an average price target of $19.71 versus the stock’s reported trading price of $15.55; institutional investors own 54.03% of the company.

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) CEO Gleb Budman sold 12,855 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total value of $203,366.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,192,103 shares of the company's stock, valued at $34,679,069.46. The trade was a 0.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Backblaze Stock Performance

BLZE traded down $0.25 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $15.55. The stock had a trading volume of 3,460,072 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,179,476. Backblaze, Inc. has a 1 year low of $3.26 and a 1 year high of $23.99. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $14.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.48. The stock has a market cap of $962.54 million, a PE ratio of -45.73 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citizens Jmp lifted their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $16.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. William Blair raised Backblaze from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Citigroup reiterated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. B. Riley Financial boosted their price objective on Backblaze from $16.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Lake Street Capital reissued a "buy" rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Backblaze in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $19.71.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Backblaze by 8.2% during the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 29,323 shares of the company's stock worth $161,000 after purchasing an additional 2,229 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Backblaze by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 44,103 shares of the company's stock valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 3,363 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,219 shares of the company's stock valued at $151,000 after buying an additional 3,523 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 109,001 shares of the company's stock valued at $600,000 after buying an additional 3,763 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in Backblaze by 31.8% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 19,292 shares of the company's stock worth $106,000 after buying an additional 4,650 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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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