Morgan Stanley Raises BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Price Target to $80.00

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) had its price target raised by Morgan Stanley from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 32.10% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on BL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of BlackLine from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on BlackLine from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. BTIG Research decreased their price target on shares of BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of BlackLine from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackLine has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.60.

BlackLine Stock Performance

BL opened at $60.56 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $54.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $51.69. The stock has a market cap of $3.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.80, a P/E/G ratio of 15.28 and a beta of 0.90. BlackLine has a 1 year low of $43.37 and a 1 year high of $69.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.69 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 27,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.06, for a total transaction of $1,626,364.74. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 113,865 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,838,731.90. This trade represents a 19.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $5,044,989.40. This trade represents a 1.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 135,495 shares of company stock valued at $7,560,534 over the last quarter. Insiders own 9.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP bought a new stake in BlackLine during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in BlackLine in the first quarter valued at about $36,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackLine during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $64,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 31.9% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,392 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 337 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 13.0% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,306 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $112,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About BlackLine

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.