BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $66.40.

Several brokerages have issued reports on BL. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of BlackLine from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Bank of America raised shares of BlackLine from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 24,408 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.32, for a total transaction of $1,569,922.56. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 72,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,690,214.40. This trade represents a 25.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 9.53% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackLine

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC increased its holdings in BlackLine by 1.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,275 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $284,152,000 after buying an additional 64,435 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in BlackLine by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,113,882 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $128,439,000 after purchasing an additional 354,784 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in BlackLine by 35.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,666,591 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $91,896,000 after purchasing an additional 435,271 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in BlackLine by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,282,017 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $70,704,000 after purchasing an additional 3,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Topline Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in BlackLine in the fourth quarter worth $60,572,000. 95.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BlackLine Stock Down 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BL opened at $49.96 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. BlackLine has a 12 month low of $43.37 and a 12 month high of $69.31. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $60.38 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.93. The company has a market cap of $3.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.46, a PEG ratio of 10.94 and a beta of 0.92.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The technology company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.29). BlackLine had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 21.63%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that BlackLine will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackLine Company Profile

BlackLine, Inc operates a cloud-based software platform which is designed to transform accounting and finance operations for organizations of all types and sizes. Its scalable platform supports critical accounting processes such as the financial close, account reconciliations, intercompany accounting, and controls assurance.