Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Purchases New Shares in Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 44,600 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,868,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Braze in the 4th quarter valued at $498,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans acquired a new stake in Braze during the 4th quarter worth about $708,000. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Braze by 148.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 107,358 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,472,000 after buying an additional 64,093 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in shares of Braze by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 8,935 shares of the company's stock worth $374,000 after buying an additional 1,938 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Braze during the fourth quarter worth about $549,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.47% of the company's stock.

Braze Stock Down 2.8%

NASDAQ BRZE traded down $1.04 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $35.86. 289,585 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,246,925. The company has a 50 day moving average of $33.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.93. Braze, Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.45 and a 52-week high of $48.33. The firm has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.41 and a beta of 1.15.

Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 27th. The company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.07. Braze had a negative net margin of 20.41% and a negative return on equity of 24.88%. The company had revenue of $160.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $155.72 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.04) EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Braze, Inc. will post -0.98 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Susan Wiseman sold 4,167 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.98, for a total value of $129,093.66. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 248,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,713,989.02. The trade was a 1.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Myles Kleeger sold 7,149 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.82, for a total value of $291,822.18. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 177,247 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,235,222.54. This trade represents a 3.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 55,937 shares of company stock worth $2,235,381. 24.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BRZE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Braze from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Braze from $55.00 to $40.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Braze from $48.00 to $38.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 target price on Braze and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Braze from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, March 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.10.

About Braze

Braze, Inc operates a customer engagement platform that provides interactions between consumers and brands worldwide. The company offers Braze software development kits that automatically manage data ingestion and deliver mobile and web notifications, in-application/in-browser interstitial messages, and content cards; REST API that can be used to import or export data or to trigger workflows between Braze and brands' existing technology stacks; Partner Data Integrations, which allow brands to sync user cohorts from partners; Data Transformation, in which brands can programmatically sync and transform user data; and Braze Cloud Data Ingestion that enables brands to harness their customer data.