Two of 147: One Holder Is 51.3% of the Tracked Braze Stake. Its Insiders Have Never Bought a Share.

GetCoattail Research — The Filing Tape #148. Salesforce announced on October 20, 2026 that it will acquire Braze for $47.50 a share in cash, and the stock rose 51.70% that day. The filings predate the bid: just two of 147 tracked managers held the name at June 30, its insiders have no open-market purchase anywhere in the parsed record, and the borrow had already fallen 49.5% from its May peak.

The Hype

The attention is a takeover. Salesforce announced on October 20, 2026 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Braze, the customer engagement platform, for approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value, with holders of Braze Class A common stock to receive $47.50 in cash per share; the release puts Braze's customer count at approximately 2,770 and expects the transaction to close in Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, subject to approval by Braze's shareholders and receipt of required regulatory approvals. Salesforce The market reaction was immediate: the Motley Fool's market wrap recorded Braze closing at $45.57 on October 20, up 51.70%, on volume of 64.6 million shares — about 1,799% above its three-month average of 3.4 million. Motley Fool Trending-stock lists recorded the same move, with Braze the highest-ranked uncovered name on the TrendEdge list checked October 21. Our own price file, which ends on October 2, tells the pre-deal path: the stock fell 8.1% in the second quarter, from $23.61 on March 31 to $21.69 on June 30, and closed at $25.42 on October 2 — down 25.9% year to date and 29.8% below the 252-session high close of $36.19 (December 10, 2025). The filings answer who held it before the bid, and what the insiders and the borrow had done.

The Tape

For Braze — the one hundred and forty-eighth Filing Tape audit — the tape shows a two-holder tracked register whose halves moved in opposite directions, a full market that added shares while losing filers, an insider record of sales with no purchases at all, no congressional row, twenty-six passive 5% filings, and a borrow 49.5% below a peak set in May.

Lens 1 — the superinvestors: two holders, moving in opposite directions. Of 149 managers collected from SEC EDGAR, 147 are in the collection (144 at June 30; 3 early filers at September 30, none holding this name). The June 30, 2026 register is 2 distinct managers holding 1,251,008 shares worth $27,134,364, long only, with no option rows. As filed, the labels read 1 INCREASED, 1 DECREASED — there is no NEW label in this name, so the label question that has caught recent audits does not arise. Dennis Hong - ShawSpring Partners is the largest holder: 641,194 shares worth $13,907,498 — 51.3% of the tracked stake — at a 5.99% weight, labelled DECREASED. First Eagle Investment Management holds 609,814 shares (48.7% of the cohort, a 0.02% weight), labelled INCREASED. Both labels verify against the prior-quarter register by two pairing methods (methodology): ShawSpring fell from 1,112,099 shares at March 31 to 641,194, a cut of 42.3%, while First Eagle rose from 158,500 to 609,814, a rise of 284.7%. Together the two verified continuing holders went from 1,270,599 shares at March 31 to 1,251,008 at June 30, a net cut of 1.5% that is the near-cancellation of those two large opposite moves. No holder entered and none exited, and both quarterly registers reconcile exactly (methodology). The June register implies $21.69, the June 30 close exactly. 13F figures are as of June 30, 2026, published up to 45 days later.

Lens 2 — institutions: fewer filers, 22.85% more shares. At June 30, 2026, 248 institutions reported positions on the name's single CUSIP, down 7 from 255 at March 31 (−2.75%); 245 are long. Reported shares rose 22.85% to 100,101,262 (+18,621,413 shares), and reported value rose 9.09% to $2,175,182,725, labelled "reported" because the aggregate includes option rows (methodology). Flow counts agree (239 entered, 246 exited, net −7). The single-CUSIP aggregate matches the by-ticker total on every field (methodology) and implies $21.73 against the $21.69 close.

Lens 3 — insiders: sales in every window, a purchase in none. The parsed Form 4 record holds 123 filings through October 2, 2026. The last 90 days hold 15 filings with no open-market purchase and 20 sale-coded rows across 288,776 shares worth $8,322,407.82, by 3 sellers — all 20 of them officer rows. The last year holds no purchase either, against 38 sale-coded rows across 487,603 shares worth $12,713,602.82, by 7 sellers, again all of them officer rows. Across the full record: 0 purchases by 0 buyers, against 78 sale-coded rows worth $23,327,445.25, by 11 sellers. Recorded prices inside their windows: the sale rows imply $28.82 over 90 days, $26.07 over one year and $29.80 over the full record, each inside its close range in our price file (methodology). The site's 90-day insider aggregate, dated October 21, 2026, prints a later window — 15 sale-coded rows and no purchases, by the same count of 3 sellers (methodology).

Lens 4 — Congress: no row anywhere. The combined and House aggregates (as of October 3, 2026) and the Senate aggregate (as of October 1, 2026) each carry no row for this name, and the House member file from the same collection records no member with a Braze position line. This lens is therefore blank in a specific sense: no transaction for this name appears in the congressional collections as collected, which is an absence of a row, not a verified count of zero trades (methodology).

Lens 5 — the 5% register: twenty-six passive filings, and the maximum is current. Our full parse holds 26 SC 13D/G filings matching the site aggregate exactly — 0 SC 13D family and 26 SC 13G family, 21 of them amendments; 52 reporter names across 152 rows. The maximum print is FMR LLC at 16,894,686.92 shares and 15.0% as of June 30, 2026 (filed August 6, 2026, SC 13G/A), reported jointly by Abigail P. Johnson at the same share count and percentage; FMR's prior print was 13,979,624.39 shares and 12.4% as of May 29, 2026. The latest filing is a Battery group amendment as of June 30, 2026 (filed August 14, 2026), whose 20 rows carry a largest individual line of Neeraj Agrawal at 5,211,181 shares and 4.6%. BlackRock printed 7,999,821 shares and 7.1% as of June 30, 2026, and Vanguard Portfolio Management printed 5,674,866 shares and 5.03% on the same date, while The Vanguard Group itself filed 0 shares as of March 13, 2026.

Lens 6 — short interest: half the May peak, still above a year ago. The latest FINRA settlement, September 15, 2026, records 8,159,723 shares sold short at 2.32 days to cover — 7.18% of the share count in our fundamentals file (dated September 1, 2026) — down 16.79% from the prior settlement and 46.5% below the June 30, 2026 settlement (15,252,802 shares). The series peak is 16,155,525 shares at May 29, 2026: the latest reading sits 49.5% below the highest borrow on record, yet 30.9% above the year-ago settlement of 6,231,895 shares. The recent path runs 15,252,802 (June 30), 12,553,830 (July 15), 11,843,868 (July 31), 13,802,156 (August 14), 9,806,220 (August 31) and 8,159,723 (September 15).

The Gap

The narrative arriving this week is a cash bid: $47.50 a share, a 51.70% one-day rise, volume of 64.6 million shares against a 3.4 million average. The June tape — the most recent complete holdings picture, predating the bid by more than three months — shows how thin the tracked register was while that outcome was still invisible. Two of 147 tracked managers held the name at all, and their net −1.5% quarter conceals the quarter's real content: one of the two cut 42.3% while the other rose 284.7%, in a quarter when the price fell 8.1%. The full market moved the other way on shares — up 22.85% — while losing 7 filers, and at 1.25% of reported institutional shares the tracked cohort is a sample, not the register. The insider record through October 2, weeks before the announcement, is one-directional as a record: 78 sale-coded rows across the full parse and not one open-market purchase, ever, in the data we hold. Congress records nothing at all. The 5% register is entirely passive, and its largest holder, FMR at 15.0%, is dated June 30, 2026 rather than a stale year-end. The borrow, finally, had already done much of its moving before the bid: down 49.5% from a peak set on May 29, 2026, even while standing 30.9% above its year-ago level. One plausible reading is that the deal landed on a register that was already being reshaped — fewer filers holding more shares, a borrow in retreat since spring — while the tracked superinvestors, as a pair, were barely there.

What Would Change the Picture

Nothing above is a recommendation. These filings would change it:

• 1. The 2026Q3 13F season (filing window closing mid-November 2026). The baseline is 2 June holders with 1,251,008 shares and a verified continuing change of −1.5%. Whether ShawSpring (641,194 shares) rebuilds or exits after its 42.3% cut, whether First Eagle (609,814 shares) adds again, and whether any of the other 145 tracked managers opens a position in the quarter the bid was announced, would each change this lens.
• 2. A first insider open-market purchase, or further sales in the deal window. The full parsed record holds 0 purchases across 123 filings, and the last 90 days to October 2 hold 20 sale-coded rows. A first purchase would break the record's one-directional pattern; sale-coded rows filed after October 2 would extend it into the deal period.
• 3. A first congressional row, in either chamber. The combined, House and Senate aggregates carry no row for this name and the House member file records none. Any purchase or sale in either chamber would change this lens from blank to populated.
• 4. A first SC 13D, or a passive print above 15.0% on a current date. All 26 filings are SC 13G family, and the largest print (FMR LLC, 15.0% as of June 30, 2026) is a joint reporting pair. A first activist filing, or a new 13G print above 15.0%, would change this lens.
• 5. Short interest above 15,252,802 shares, or below the year-ago settlement. Above the June 30, 2026 settlement would erase the summer decline that took the borrow from 15,252,802 to 8,159,723 shares; below 6,231,895 shares (September 15, 2025) would bring the borrow back under its year-ago level.

Related reading: Seven of 147: Viking Is 65.5% of the Tracked Boeing Stake — Labelled New, It Held 3,196,041 Shares in Q1; Fifteen of 147: Ten Superinvestors Cut Intuitive Surgical in Q2 — the Verified Cohort Fell 29.7%. Its Insiders Have Never Bought a Share.. Braze's own page: Braze (BRZE) on GetCoattail.

Methodology and data notes

• As-of & limits: The lenses rest on different clocks, none live: 13F is a June 30, 2026 snapshot published up to 45 days later; Form 4 runs through October 2, 2026; Congress aggregates run through October 3, 2026 (Senate through October 1, 2026); 13D/G through August 14, 2026; short interest through September 15, 2026; the price file ends October 2, 2026. Eight limits are specific to this audit. First, the roster expanded before the recent audits — from 85 managers (83 filing) to 149 (147 filing) — so "of 147" counts are not comparable to earlier pieces' "of 83" figures. Second, this name carries a single CUSIP (10576N102, Class A common stock), and the full-market by-CUSIP row matches the by-ticker aggregate on every field — holders, long holders, shares, reported value, prior holders and prior reported value — so no CUSIP blending question arises. Third, the tracked register's change labels are verified, not taken on trust. This name carries no NEW label: its two holders are labelled DECREASED and INCREASED, and both were verified against the first-quarter pipeline register by two pairing methods — accession-prefix matching and accession identity plus CUSIP-overlap — with each label's percentage recomputing exactly (ShawSpring −42.3% on 1,112,099 first-quarter shares; First Eagle +284.7% on 158,500). The registers then reconcile exactly: the March 31 pipeline register holds 1,270,599 shares for this CUSIP, equal to the two verified continuing holders with no new holder and no exit to add; the June 30 register holds 1,251,008, equal to the June cohort with no remainder, because none of the three September 30 early filers holds this name. The verified continuing change of −1.5% therefore equals the register-to-register change, which is not usually the case. Fourth, the insider record contains no purchase in any window, so no implied purchase price exists. The implied sale prices ($28.82 over 90 days, against a $21.22–$34.53 close range; $26.07 over one year, against $15.79–$36.19; $29.80 over the full record, against $15.79–$94.16) sit inside their ranges. The site's 90-day insider aggregate (dated October 21, 2026) prints 0 purchases, 15 sale-coded rows worth $6,096,189.91 and 3 sellers: its window ends October 21, 2026, nineteen days after the full parse's October 2 cut, so its counts are not expected to equal the parse's 90-day window (20 sale-coded rows worth $8,322,407.82, also 3 sellers, also no purchases). This audit cites the full parse as primary. Fifth, the Congress lens is an absence, stated as such: the combined aggregate (as of October 3, 2026), the House aggregate (October 3, 2026), the Senate aggregate (October 1, 2026) and the House member file (politicians_members.json, as of October 3, 2026; window: 2026 House PTR filings, transactions dated on or after April 1, 2026) all carry no row for this name. An absent row means no transaction appears in the collections as collected; it is not a verified zero. Sixth, the 5% register's cross-date share total of 587,476,479.62 is an arithmetic sum of reporter rows across different as-of dates, not a current combined stake: the register holds extensive joint reporting, including FMR LLC and Abigail P. Johnson reporting the same stake under two names (12.4% as of May 29, 2026 and 15.0% as of June 30, 2026) and a single Battery group filing carrying 20 reporter rows over overlapping stakes. The Vanguard names illustrate the same point in the other direction: The Vanguard Group filed 0 shares as of March 13, 2026, while Vanguard Portfolio Management printed 5,674,866 shares and 5.03% as of June 30, 2026 — the register is read by reporter name, not consolidated by group. Parsed totals match the aggregates exactly. Seventh, the short-interest series needs no split adjustment: our price file records no split for this name, the series holds no split-flagged row, and no settlement step reaches 2x or falls to one-half (largest step 1.506x, December 31, 2021; smallest 0.643x, May 31, 2022); one row carries a FINRA revision flag (May 31, 2023). The series holds 116 settlements rather than the 137 in longer-listed names because it begins at November 30, 2021, the first settlement after this name's listing. The issuer-name field reads "Braze, Inc. Class A Common Sto" at all 116 settlements, on a single market class (NNM) throughout. Against the share count in our fundamentals file — 113,584,427 shares outstanding dated September 1, 2026 — the latest borrow is 7.18%. Eighth, the full-market aggregate implies $21.73 against the June 30 close of $21.69 (+0.18%): the aggregate is a reported sum that includes option rows, so its implied price need not equal the close; the tracked register, which holds no option rows in this name, implies the close exactly. The company's fundamentals as collected print fiscal 2026 revenue of $738,182,000, net income of −$131,287,000 and assets of $1,113,757,000 (fiscal year ended January 31, 2026), with 113,584,427 shares outstanding as of September 1, 2026; those figures are reported as collected and are not used in any lens above. Every price statement from our own file is mechanical, a date and a close. The deal-day figures in The Hype — the October 20, 2026 close of $45.57, the 51.70% rise and the 64.6 million-share volume — are outlet figures published after our price file ends, and are cited as such, not blended into file-based calculations.
• Market context sources: Salesforce, "Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Braze", published October 20, 2026 (definitive agreement to acquire Braze for approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value; holders of Braze Class A common stock to receive $47.50 in cash per share; Braze serves approximately 2,770 customers; the transaction is expected to close in Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, subject to approval by Braze's shareholders and receipt of required regulatory approvals; no anticipated change to Salesforce's fiscal 2027 guidance). Motley Fool, "Stock Market Today, Oct. 20: Salesforce Agrees to Acquire Braze for $5.66 Billion: BRZE Stock Soars 52%", published October 20, 2026 (Braze closed at $45.57, up 51.70%, on volume of 64.6 million shares, about 1,799% above its three-month average of 3.4 million). TrendEdge trending list, checked October 21, 2026 (Braze the highest-ranked uncovered name, up 51.7% on volume, after covered IREN; the list also carried AAL, HTZ, covered CLF, RKT, KEY and covered GM). Google Trends U.S. coverage (TS2 mirror of Google Trends, checked October 21, 2026) was checked first for this audit: its top U.S. single-stock items were SMCI (skipped — a re-check on October 21, 2026 found our fundamentals file still holds no record for it), SPCX (skipped), ISRG and BA (the two immediately preceding audits) and TTWO (covered). Figures we could not confirm were left out; the external items above are reported speech from those outlets, not GetCoattail measurements.
• Braze is in the GetCoattail stock-page universe: Braze (BRZE) stock page. Series data: brze_lens_data.csv · brze_short_interest_series.csv. Earlier audits: Boeing · Intuitive Surgical.

Past patterns are not a promise of future results. For education only — not investment advice.

This article describes public filings as of the dates stated. It is not investment advice and makes no recommendation. Filings lag reality: 13F positions are as of June 30, 2026, and later trading is not yet public.

Revision history: v1.0 — October 21, 2026: first publication.