BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Lifted to Neutral at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler upgraded shares of BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $62.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $55.00.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on BL. William Blair downgraded shares of BlackLine from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a sell rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. JMP Securities reiterated a market outperform rating and set a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $65.00 to $61.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackLine has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $62.20.

BlackLine Price Performance

BlackLine stock opened at $60.83 on Tuesday. BlackLine has a 1 year low of $47.26 and a 1 year high of $69.31. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $62.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.31. The company has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -608.30, a PEG ratio of 10.65 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37, a quick ratio of 2.19 and a current ratio of 2.19.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.28. BlackLine had a negative net margin of 1.50% and a positive return on equity of 2.15%. The company had revenue of $155.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $154.24 million. Sell-side analysts predict that BlackLine will post 1.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackLine

In other news, Director Thomas Unterman sold 750 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $45,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 51,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,088,200. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total value of $258,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,500. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Unterman sold 750 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $45,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 51,470 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,088,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,738,189 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $420,733,000 after buying an additional 79,649 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,899,804 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $118,624,000 after purchasing an additional 45,950 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,414,835 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $88,342,000 after purchasing an additional 47,420 shares during the period. Meritage Group LP acquired a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the third quarter worth approximately $59,530,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 16.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 787,289 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,671,000 after purchasing an additional 112,684 shares during the period. 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.