Short Interest in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Rises By 43.1%

Key Points

• Short interest jumped 43.1% to 1,466,622 shares as of Feb. 27, equal to 2.7% of shares outstanding and a short-interest ratio of about 1.1 days.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive with seven Buy, one Hold and one Sell rating and a consensus price target of $7.21, though some firms recently trimmed targets (e.g., Oppenheimer to $8.50, B. Riley to $7.50).
• Backblaze shares traded at $3.64 with a market cap of ~$210 million and a 52-week range of $3.54–$10.86; institutional investors own ~54.0% of the stock, and Millennium Management materially increased its stake to 825,422 shares.

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 27th, there was short interest totaling 1,466,622 shares, an increase of 43.1% from the February 12th total of 1,024,998 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,325,480 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.1 days. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,325,480 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.1 days. Currently, 2.7% of the company's shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLZE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup reissued a "market outperform" rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. B. Riley Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $9.00 to $7.50 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Lake Street Capital reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Backblaze in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Loop Capital set a $8.00 target price on Backblaze in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Seven research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $7.21.

Institutional Trading of Backblaze

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze in the first quarter valued at approximately $426,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in Backblaze by 17.6% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 27,094 shares of the company's stock worth $131,000 after acquiring an additional 4,060 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Backblaze by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 825,422 shares of the company's stock worth $3,987,000 after acquiring an additional 202,609 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Backblaze by 27.1% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 261,610 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,264,000 after acquiring an additional 55,720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. raised its holdings in Backblaze by 84.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. now owns 41,624 shares of the company's stock valued at $229,000 after acquiring an additional 19,035 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.03% of the company's stock.

Backblaze Stock Performance

BLZE traded down $0.12 during trading on Friday, reaching $3.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,124,481 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,234,590. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.07. The company's fifty day moving average price is $4.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.37. Backblaze has a 52-week low of $3.54 and a 52-week high of $10.86. The company has a market capitalization of $210.03 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.91 and a beta of 1.30.

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. 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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