BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Short Interest Update

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,390,000 shares, a decline of 6.6% from the August 31st total of 4,700,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 877,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.0 days. Approximately 8.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of BlackLine from $62.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. BTIG Research cut their price objective on BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $81.00 target price on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Monday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on BlackLine from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.90.

Insider Activity

In related news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total value of $71,707.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 97,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,044,989.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Mark Partin sold 5,648 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total value of $299,344.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 226,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,022,732. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total transaction of $71,707.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 97,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,044,989.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 117,721 shares of company stock worth $6,379,052 over the last 90 days. 9.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackLine

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of BlackLine by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,380,961 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $476,662,000 after purchasing an additional 642,772 shares during the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 85.4% during the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 730,259 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,597,000 after buying an additional 336,298 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackLine during the second quarter worth approximately $15,128,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $16,927,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of BlackLine by 3,945.7% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 265,845 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,168,000 after acquiring an additional 259,274 shares during the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackLine Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BL opened at $54.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 235.35, a P/E/G ratio of 12.80 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50-day moving average of $49.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $52.85. BlackLine has a fifty-two week low of $43.37 and a fifty-two week high of $69.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $160.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $158.21 million. BlackLine had a return on equity of 33.96% and a net margin of 19.46%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.69) EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that BlackLine will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackLine Company Profile

BlackLine, Inc provides cloud-based solutions to automate and streamline accounting and finance operations worldwide. It offers financial close management solutions, such as account reconciliations that provides a centralized workspace for users to collaborate on account reconciliations; transaction matching that analyzes and reconciles individual transactions; task management to create and manage processes and task lists; and financial reporting analytics that enables analysis and validation of financial data.