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

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

Backblaze Stock Up 0.8 %

Backblaze stock traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $9.31. 157,366 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 357,965. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $10.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $8.24. The firm has a market cap of $383.57 million, a P/E ratio of -5.64 and a beta of 1.20. Backblaze has a 1 year low of $3.50 and a 1 year high of $12.65.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported ($0.30) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.34) by $0.04. Backblaze had a negative return on equity of 105.94% and a negative net margin of 57.70%. The business had revenue of $28.74 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.18 million. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Backblaze will post -1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity

In other Backblaze news, VP Tina Cessna sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.95, for a total transaction of $199,000.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 121,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,204,775.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Backblaze news, VP Tina Cessna sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.95, for a total transaction of $199,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 121,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,204,775.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Francis P. Patchel sold 3,434 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.84, for a total value of $33,790.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 178,575 shares in the company, valued at $1,757,178. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 81,429 shares of company stock valued at $851,676 in the last 90 days. 5.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Backblaze

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in Backblaze during the 3rd quarter valued at $121,000. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 183.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 51,168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $281,000 after acquiring an additional 33,085 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Backblaze in the third quarter worth $2,479,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Backblaze by 34.5% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 291,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,602,000 after purchasing an additional 74,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EAM Investors LLC bought a new stake in Backblaze during the third quarter valued at $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.