Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during 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. Based on an average daily volume of 1,325,480 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.1 days. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,325,480 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.1 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on BLZE shares. Craig Hallum lowered shares of Backblaze from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $4.50 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Backblaze from $9.50 to $8.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Backblaze in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Lake Street Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Backblaze in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, B. Riley Financial decreased their price target on Backblaze from $9.00 to $7.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Backblaze has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.21.

Backblaze Price Performance

Backblaze stock opened at $3.64 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $210.03 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.91 and a beta of 1.30. Backblaze has a 52-week low of $3.54 and a 52-week high of $10.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $4.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $6.34.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Backblaze

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Backblaze during the first quarter valued at about $426,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Backblaze by 17.6% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 27,094 shares of the company’s stock valued at $131,000 after buying an additional 4,060 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Backblaze by 32.5% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 825,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,987,000 after buying an additional 202,609 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position 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 buying an additional 55,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. increased its position 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 buying an additional 19,035 shares in the last quarter. 54.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.