BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Short Interest Up 9.9% in March

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,220,000 shares, an increase of 9.9% from the March 15th total of 3,840,000 shares. Currently, 10.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 953,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Insider Transactions at BlackLine

In other news, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $632,500. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Thomas Unterman sold 750 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the director now directly owns 51,470 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,088,200. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,500. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 9.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of BlackLine by 94.8% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 452 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the 4th quarter worth approximately $38,000. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 1,101.9% in the 1st quarter. Quarry LP now owns 625 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 573 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 505.2% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 926 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Operose Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 291.2% in the 3rd quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 978 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on BlackLine from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $81.00 target price on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on BlackLine from $65.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on BlackLine from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on BlackLine from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.80.

BlackLine Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BL opened at $59.68 on Wednesday. BlackLine has a fifty-two week low of $47.26 and a fifty-two week high of $69.31. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $62.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.05. The company has a quick ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 2.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37. The firm has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a PE ratio of -596.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 11.29 and a beta of 0.86.

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

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.