Whetstone Capital Advisors LLC recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Backblaze Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 298.16% to 0.83 million shares with purchase of 0.62 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 5.42% valued currently at $5.1 million. In addition, AWM Investment Co., Inc. raised its holdings by 83119.0 to 0.64 million shares. And The Vanguard Group, Inc. has lifted its position by 17.54% or 77154.0 shares – to 0.52 million shares.
With over 71501.0 Backblaze Inc. (BLZE) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $7.61 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $0.54 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 49.51% and its price on 01/24/23 lost nearly -1.30%. Currently, there are 31.99M common shares owned by the public and among those 13.48M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for BLZE have a consensus price objective of $11.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $18.00 and a low of $8.50. The average price target is 30.82% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 10.47% over that period. But an upside of 57.72% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $9.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 854 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 18 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 3,014,665 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 836 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 1,654,290 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Backblaze Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, USAA Science & Technology Fund, and Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 0.38 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $2.33 million. Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu bought 240.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.13 million shares at a value of $0.79 million. Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu now owns shares totaling to 0.84% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Backblaze Inc. (NASDAQ: BLZE) opened at $7.67, down -$0.04 from a prior closing price of $7.71. However, the script later moved the day high at 8.17, down -1.30%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.79% and 67.99% over the past three months. BLZE shares are trading 23.74% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -38.08% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $3.82 and touched a high of $15.89 over the same period. BLZE has an average intraday trading volume of 104.42K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 13.49%, 39.54%, and 24.88% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Backblaze Inc. (NASDAQ: BLZE) shares accounts for 27.50% of the company’s 31.99M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 5.48%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 8.25% and 21.70% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $230.81M. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$1.47. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 7.63% over the week and 7.04% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Backblaze Inc. (BLZE) will achieve an EPS of -$0.38 for the current quarter, -$0.43 for the next quarter and -$1.58 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.42 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of -$0.33. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$0.32 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -215.70%, and -2.50% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate Backblaze Inc. (BLZE) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.70. Specifically, 4 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 0 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Raymond James coverage for the Backblaze Inc. (BLZE) stock in a research note released on December 06, 2021 offered a Outperform rating with a price target of $26. Oppenheimer was of a view on December 06, 2021 that the stock is Outperform, while Lake Street gave the stock Buy rating on December 06, 2021, issuing a price target of $28. JMP Securities on their part issued Mkt Outperform rating on December 06, 2021.
