# Backblaze (BLZE.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/BLZE

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:27:00.020Z. Financial observations: FY2019–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $9.91 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 0 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 8 years

- Years with declining revenue: 0

- Years with a net loss: 8

- Operating margin variation: 0.80×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2019: 0.02×

- FY2020: -0.07×

- FY2021: -0.28×

- FY2022: -0.57×

- FY2023: -0.57×

- FY2024: -0.36×

- FY2025: -0.16×

- LTM to Jun 2026: -0.11×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: -53.0%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -74.3%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -2.8 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 51.5%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 54.3%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 9.2%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -30.6%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2019: 10.4%

- FY2020: -15.9%

- FY2021: -62.1%

- FY2022: -77.9%

- FY2023: -74.3%

- FY2024: -53.0%

- FY2025: -20.0%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- incremental invested capital return below threshold

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: -$153M

- Net income, five-year total: -$207M

- Return on incremental invested capital: 0.0%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 0.3 pp

Chart: Owner earnings · five years; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: -$17M

- FY2022: -$47M

- FY2023: -$55M

- FY2024: -$22M

- FY2025: -$12M

### management: fail

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -15.9% vs -53.0%

- Per-share earnings: -0.36 to -1.11 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 24.7%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 24.7%

- Per-share value change: -$0.76

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$0.36

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: -$1.11

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 1.00

- Average buyback yield: 0.4%

- Buyback history: 2 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- ROIC, first three-year median: -15.9%

- ROIC, last three-year median: -53.0%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2019: -$0.05

- FY2020: -$0.36

- FY2021: -$1.07

- FY2022: -$1.62

- FY2023: -$1.66

- FY2024: -$1.11

- FY2025: -$0.46

### accounting: pass

- stock compensation exceeds 15% of operating cash flow

- Sloan accruals: -25.6%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.14×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 112.3%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 1

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.49×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2019: -36.8%

- FY2020: -35.7%

- FY2021: -15.4%

- FY2022: -24.7%

- FY2023: -39.8%

- FY2024: -36.2%

- FY2025: -25.6%

## Holders

- [Dan Davidowitz](https://gigainvestors.com/pcm): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 54% since Nov 2021 · sales +7.2%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:58:24.860Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2026-05-12: Backblaze Says AI Demand Is Driving Faster Growth in B2 Cloud Storage ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/backblaze-says-ai-demand-driving-161625078.html))

- 2026-06-06: Backblaze Sees AI Boom Fueling Cloud Storage Demand and Neocloud Deals ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/backblaze-sees-ai-boom-fueling-160218032.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +7.2%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1462056/000162828026016395/blze-20251231.htm; observed 2026-03-10.

- FY2019: $41M 

- FY2020: $54M 

- FY2021: $67M 

- FY2022: $85M 

- FY2023: $102M 

- FY2024: $128M 

- FY2025: $146M 

- FY2026: $156M 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 60.9%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1462056/000162828026016395/blze-20251231.htm; observed 2026-03-10.

- FY2019: 50.6% 

- FY2020: 52.0% 

- FY2021: 50.9% 

- FY2022: 51.5% 

- FY2023: 48.9% 

- FY2024: 54.3% 

- FY2025: 60.9% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in software infrastructure; annual sales are USD 145.8 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1462056/000162828026016395/blze-20251231.htm (filed 2026-03-10); FY2025: revenue 145835000; grossProfit 88793000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-15); BLZE.US: Backblaze, Inc., a cloud storage platform, provides businesses and consumers cloud services to store, use, and protect data in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company offers cloud services through a web-scale software infrastructure built on commodity hardware. It also provides B2 Cloud Storage, which enables customers to store data, developers to build applications, and partners to expand their use cases. In addition, the company offers cloud storage solutions for a range of 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; and Internet of Things. Further, it provides computer backup that automatically backs up data from laptops and desktops for businesses and individuals, which offers a subscription-based software-as-a-service and serves use cases, including MAC and PC backup; ransomware protection; theft and loss recovery; data archiving; organization and managed service provider level management; and remote access. The company serves individuals, developers, MSPS, small and medium-sized businesses, and large enterprises across industries, including media, AI innovators, creative agencies, academic institutions, government agencies, research institutes, and gaming companies. It has a collaboration with WEKA to simplify how AI teams manage data across the AI lifecycle. Backblaze, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 48.9% to 60.9% during 2023–25; it lost 53% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-10); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 48.9%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-10); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 54.3%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1462056/000162828026016395/blze-20251231.htm (filed 2026-03-10); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 60.9%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-10); 7-year return on capital observations [[2019,0.10431473493808265],[2020,-0.15883417735157848],[2021,-0.6214582897325353],[2022,-0.7787029563008339],[2023,-0.7426610494187934],[2024,-0.5296224256292906],[2025,-0.19975777102243536]]; median -0.5296224256292906. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 1 of 7 years; bought back USD 2 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-10); FY2019: growth capex 0; upkeep 3578000; owner earnings 4744000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-10); FY2020: growth capex 0; upkeep 4975000; owner earnings 1353000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-10); Dividend observations: [[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,130000],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1462056/000162828026016395/blze-20251231.htm (filed 2026-03-10); FY2025: cash repurchases 1983000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 4.5% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-15); BLZE.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 4.5409999999999995 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-15.

### What the price says

The price is 3.8 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-10); Closing price 9.91 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 2.5944825469256028; price multiple 3.819644118147221. FY2025 cash earnings/share -0.21844996875715347. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2021-11: $21.47 per share

- 2021-12: $16.89 per share

- 2022-01: $13.23 per share

- 2022-02: $11.38 per share

- 2022-03: $10.67 per share

- 2022-04: $9.48 per share

- 2022-05: $6.36 per share

- 2022-06: $5.23 per share

- 2022-07: $5.62 per share

- 2022-08: $6.51 per share

- 2022-09: $4.97 per share

- 2022-10: $4.69 per share

- 2022-11: $4.47 per share

- 2022-12: $6.15 per share

- 2023-01: $7.14 per share

- 2023-02: $5.60 per share

- 2023-03: $5.05 per share

- 2023-04: $4.16 per share

- 2023-05: $4.19 per share

- 2023-06: $4.33 per share

- 2023-07: $5.23 per share

- 2023-08: $5.86 per share

- 2023-09: $5.50 per share

- 2023-10: $5.21 per share

- 2023-11: $7.24 per share

- 2023-12: $7.59 per share

- 2024-01: $8.20 per share

- 2024-02: $10.62 per share

- 2024-03: $10.23 per share

- 2024-04: $9.31 per share

- 2024-05: $6.11 per share

- 2024-06: $6.16 per share

- 2024-07: $6.62 per share

- 2024-08: $6.11 per share

- 2024-09: $6.39 per share

- 2024-10: $7.22 per share

- 2024-11: $6.49 per share

- 2024-12: $6.02 per share

- 2025-01: $6.05 per share

- 2025-02: $6.54 per share

- 2025-03: $4.83 per share

- 2025-04: $4.40 per share

- 2025-05: $5.70 per share

- 2025-06: $5.50 per share

- 2025-07: $4.99 per share

- 2025-08: $8.35 per share

- 2025-09: $9.28 per share

- 2025-10: $10.31 per share

- 2025-11: $4.74 per share

- 2025-12: $4.66 per share

- 2026-01: $4.55 per share

- 2026-02: $3.76 per share

- 2026-03: $3.45 per share

- 2026-04: $4.28 per share

- 2026-05: $8.28 per share

- 2026-06: $15.86 per share

- 2026-07: $13.72 per share

- 2026-08: $14.13 per share

- 2026-09: $13.99 per share

- 2026-10: $9.91 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1462056/000162828026016395/blze-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-03-10.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.