Contrasting GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) and Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE)
by Jessica Moore · The Cerbat GemBackblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE – Get Free Report) and GDS (NASDAQ:GDS – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, profitability and dividends.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Backblaze and GDS”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Backblaze | $145.84 million | 5.62 | -$25.61 million | ($0.34) | -38.91 |
| GDS | $1.63 billion | 3.97 | $132.10 million | $2.15 | 15.07 |
GDS has higher revenue and earnings than Backblaze. Backblaze is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than GDS, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Volatility & Risk
Backblaze has a beta of 1.56, suggesting that its stock price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GDS has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
54.0% of Backblaze shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.7% of GDS shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Backblaze shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of GDS shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current recommendations for Backblaze and GDS, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Backblaze | 1 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 2.70 |
| GDS | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2.83 |
Backblaze currently has a consensus price target of $19.71, indicating a potential upside of 49.01%. GDS has a consensus price target of $48.12, indicating a potential upside of 48.55%. Given Backblaze’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Backblaze is more favorable than GDS.
Profitability
This table compares Backblaze and GDS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Backblaze | -13.07% | -16.73% | -7.10% |
| GDS | 30.70% | 17.94% | 6.11% |
Summary
GDS beats Backblaze on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
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. In addition, the company offers Backblaze Computer Backup that automatically backs up data from laptops and desktops for businesses and individuals, which provides a subscription-based Software-as-a-Service and serves use cases, including computer backup, ransomware protection, theft and loss protection, and remote access. It serves the public cloud IaaS storage and Data-Protection-as-a-Service markets. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.
About GDS
GDS Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, develops and operates data centers in the People's Republic of China. The company provides colocation services comprising critical facilities space, customer-available power, racks, and cooling; managed hosting services, including business continuity and disaster recovery, network management, data storage, system security, operating system, database, and server middleware services; managed cloud services; and consulting services. It serves cloud service providers, large Internet companies, financial institutions, telecommunications and IT service providers, and large domestic private sector and multinational corporations. GDS Holdings Limited was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.