Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Braze, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRZE) shares gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on the stock from $70.00 to $65.00. The stock had previously closed at $50.58, but opened at $45.31. Canaccord Genuity Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Braze shares last traded at $46.57, with a volume of 966,497 shares traded.

BRZE has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group upgraded Braze from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $62.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Braze from $60.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 7th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Braze in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities raised their target price on Braze from $56.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 7th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Braze in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Braze news, CAO Pankaj Malik sold 1,000 shares of Braze stock in a transaction on Friday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.73, for a total value of $53,730.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 77,853 shares in the company, valued at $4,183,041.69. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Phillip M. Fernandez sold 1,500 shares of Braze stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.91, for a total value of $89,865.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 11,056 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $662,364.96. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Pankaj Malik sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.73, for a total value of $53,730.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 77,853 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,183,041.69. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 75,471 shares of company stock worth $4,196,153. 26.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Braze

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fred Alger Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Braze in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Braze during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Braze in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of Braze by 189.3% in the 3rd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,160 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 759 shares during the period. Finally, Canton Hathaway LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Braze in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.47% of the company’s stock.

Braze Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $4.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.34 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $55.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.24.

Braze Company Profile

Braze, Inc operates a customer engagement platform that provides interactions between consumers and brands worldwide. The company offers data ingestion products, such as 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 cohort syncing, which allow brands to sync user cohorts from partners; and Braze Cloud Data Ingestion that enables brands to harness their customer data.