Bank of New York Mellon Corp Makes New Investment in Backblaze, Inc. $BLZE

Key Points

• Bank of New York Mellon purchased 193,812 Backblaze shares worth approximately $3.1 million, while institutional investors collectively own 54.03% of the company.
• Backblaze CEO Gleb Budman and CFO Marc Suidan sold shares to cover tax obligations related to vested equity awards; insiders own 4.20% of the stock.
• Backblaze exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, and analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $19.71 versus the stock’s $13.45 opening price.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Backblaze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLZE - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 193,812 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,074,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned approximately 0.32% of Backblaze as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in Backblaze by 1,388.2% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 5,551 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 5,178 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Backblaze in the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Oxford Asset Management LLP bought a new position in Backblaze in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $47,000. M&T Bank Corp bought a new stake in shares of Backblaze in the 4th quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Backblaze during the 2nd quarter valued at about $58,000. 54.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Backblaze

In other news, CEO Gleb Budman sold 12,855 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total transaction of $203,366.10. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,192,103 shares in the company, valued at $34,679,069.46. This trade represents a 0.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Marc Suidan sold 2,110 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.82, for a total transaction of $33,380.20. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 349,518 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,529,374.76. The trade was a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Backblaze Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ:BLZE opened at $13.45 on Monday. Backblaze, Inc. has a 52 week low of $3.26 and a 52 week high of $23.99. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $15.60 and a 200 day moving average of $9.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $832.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -39.56 and a beta of 1.56.

Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.06. Backblaze had a negative net margin of 13.07% and a negative return on equity of 16.73%. The company had revenue of $42.71 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.94 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Backblaze, Inc. will post -0.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BLZE. B. Riley Financial boosted their target price on shares of Backblaze from $16.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of Backblaze in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Craig Hallum raised shares of Backblaze from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $6.50 to $16.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Backblaze from $14.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Citizens Jmp increased their price objective on shares of Backblaze from $16.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Backblaze presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $19.71.

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.

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