AJOVista LLC Buys New Shares in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE)

AJOVista LLC purchased a new position in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 8,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLZE. First Eagle Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze during the 3rd quarter valued at $2,479,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Backblaze by 34.5% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. EAM Investors LLC purchased a new stake in Backblaze during the 3rd quarter worth $1,389,000. Kent Lake Capital LLC acquired a new position in Backblaze in the 3rd quarter worth $423,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Backblaze by 193.4% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 72,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $399,000 after acquiring an additional 47,834 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Backblaze

In other news, VP Tina Cessna sold 20,000 shares of Backblaze stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.95, for a total transaction of $199,000.00. Following 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,698,715 shares in the company, valued at $18,108,301.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Tina Cessna sold 20,000 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $199,000.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 121,083 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,204,775.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 81,429 shares of company stock worth $851,676. Insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Backblaze Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BLZE traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $9.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 193,414 shares, compared to its average volume of 196,572. The firm has a market cap of $386.87 million, a P/E ratio of -5.69 and a beta of 1.21. Backblaze, Inc. has a 1-year low of $3.50 and a 1-year high of $12.65. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $10.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported ($0.30) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $28.18 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Backblaze, Inc. will post -1.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.