Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) Short Interest Up 5.6% in June

Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,700,000 shares, a growth of 5.6% from the May 31st total of 4,450,000 shares. Approximately 7.3% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,130,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.2 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Braze in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Braze in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Braze from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Braze in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Braze from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.88.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Isabelle Winkles sold 8,383 shares of Braze stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.80, for a total value of $358,792.40. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 278,681 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,927,546.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Myles Kleeger sold 6,344 shares of Braze stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.68, for a total transaction of $270,761.92. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 215,518 shares in the company, valued at $9,198,308.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Isabelle Winkles sold 8,383 shares of Braze stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.80, for a total value of $358,792.40. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 278,681 shares in the company, valued at $11,927,546.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 74,894 shares of company stock valued at $3,119,266 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 24.03% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Braze

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BRZE. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Braze by 6.6% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,434 shares of the company’s stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 335 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Braze by 40.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 481,835 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,516,000 after acquiring an additional 139,416 shares during the period. Lido Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Braze in the third quarter worth about $327,000. Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in Braze during the third quarter valued at approximately $283,000. Finally, Penserra Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Braze by 375.8% during the third quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 55,982 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,616,000 after buying an additional 44,217 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.47% of the company’s stock.

Braze Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BRZE opened at $39.54 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.14. Braze has a 52-week low of $33.93 and a 52-week high of $61.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.02 billion, a PE ratio of -30.89 and a beta of 1.06.

Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 6th. The company reported ($0.35) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.36) by $0.01. Braze had a negative return on equity of 27.85% and a negative net margin of 25.06%. The business had revenue of $135.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $131.56 million. Equities analysts forecast that Braze will post -1.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Braze

Braze, Inc operates a customer engagement platform that provides interactions between consumers and brands worldwide. The company offers Braze software development kits that automatically manage data ingestion and deliver mobile and web notifications, in-application/in-browser interstitial messages, and content cards; REST API that can be used to import or export data or to trigger workflows between Braze and brands' existing technology stacks; Partner Data Integrations, which allow brands to sync user cohorts from partners; Data Transformation, in which brands can programmatically sync and transform user data; and Braze Cloud Data Ingestion that enables brands to harness their customer data.