Cerity Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 100,083 Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE)

Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 100,083 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $640,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Backblaze during the 2nd quarter valued at about $102,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Backblaze by 84.1% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 21,283 shares of the company’s stock valued at $131,000 after purchasing an additional 9,720 shares in the last quarter. Tempus Wealth Planning LLC bought a new position in shares of Backblaze during the third quarter valued at approximately $157,000. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Backblaze by 90.7% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 34,851 shares of the company’s stock valued at $215,000 after purchasing an additional 16,577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in shares of Backblaze by 3,750.3% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 47,474 shares of the company’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 46,241 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.03% of the company’s stock.

Backblaze Stock Performance

Backblaze stock opened at $6.88 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $6.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market cap of $305.47 million, a PE ratio of -6.20 and a beta of 0.91. Backblaze, Inc. has a twelve month low of $4.91 and a twelve month high of $12.65.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by ($0.18). Backblaze had a negative net margin of 37.13% and a negative return on equity of 100.67%. The business had revenue of $32.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.54 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.43) EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Backblaze, Inc. will post -1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Backblaze

In related news, VP Tina Cessna sold 8,874 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.42, for a total value of $56,971.08. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 144,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $928,113.72. This represents a 5.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Gleb Budman sold 10,321 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.42, for a total value of $66,260.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,864,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,971,027.32. This represents a 0.55 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BLZE. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Backblaze from $11.00 to $10.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Craig Hallum lifted their target price on shares of Backblaze from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Backblaze from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th.

Backblaze Company Profile

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.