BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Upgraded to “Neutral” by Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler upgraded shares of BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. Piper Sandler currently has $62.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $55.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on BL. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on BlackLine from $65.00 to $61.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of BlackLine from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a sell rating in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of BlackLine in a report on Monday, March 18th. They set a peer perform rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, William Blair downgraded BlackLine from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $62.20.

BlackLine Stock Performance

BL opened at $61.46 on Tuesday. BlackLine has a 1-year low of $47.26 and a 1-year high of $69.31. The company has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -614.60, a PEG ratio of 10.19 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $62.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.27. The company has a current ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 2.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $155.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $154.24 million. BlackLine had a negative net margin of 1.50% and a positive return on equity of 2.15%. On average, analysts expect that BlackLine will post 1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Thomas Unterman sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $45,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 51,470 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,088,200. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Thomas Unterman sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $45,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 51,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,088,200. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,500. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackLine

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Meritage Group LP purchased a new position in shares of BlackLine during the 3rd quarter valued at about $59,530,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $597,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the 3rd quarter valued at $13,130,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 33.5% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 320,139 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,758,000 after purchasing an additional 80,391 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in BlackLine by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,658,540 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $369,349,000 after purchasing an additional 380,614 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

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.