Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Short Interest Up 8.1% in April

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,340,000 shares, a growth of 8.1% from the March 31st total of 1,240,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 417,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days. Approximately 5.1% of the company's shares are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BLZE. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, B. Riley lifted their target price on shares of Backblaze from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 9th.

Backblaze Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ BLZE traded up $0.07 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $9.31. The stock had a trading volume of 157,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 357,965. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $383.57 million, a PE ratio of -5.64 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $10.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.24. Backblaze has a twelve month low of $3.50 and a twelve month high of $12.65.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported ($0.30) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by $0.04. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 57.70% and a negative return on equity of 105.94%. The company had revenue of $28.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $28.18 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Backblaze will post -1.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 50,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.66, for a total value of $533,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,698,715 shares of the company's stock, valued at $18,108,301.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 50,000 shares of Backblaze stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.66, for a total transaction of $533,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,698,715 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $18,108,301.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Tina Cessna sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.95, for a total value of $199,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 121,083 shares in the company, valued at $1,204,775.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 81,429 shares of company stock valued at $851,676 in the last three months. 5.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Backblaze in the 3rd quarter valued at about $121,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Backblaze by 183.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 51,168 shares of the company's stock valued at $281,000 after acquiring an additional 33,085 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Backblaze in the third quarter worth approximately $2,479,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Backblaze by 34.5% in the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 291,546 shares of the company's stock worth $1,602,000 after acquiring an additional 74,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EAM Investors LLC acquired a new position in Backblaze during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,389,000. 54.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Backblaze

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.

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