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

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

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. William Blair cut shares of BlackLine from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research began coverage on BlackLine in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on BlackLine from $65.00 to $61.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $62.20.

BlackLine Trading Up 5.3 %

Shares of BlackLine stock 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37, a current ratio of 2.19 and a quick ratio of 2.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.80 billion, a PE ratio of -614.60, a P/E/G ratio of 10.19 and a beta of 0.86.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $155.73 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.24 million. BlackLine had a positive return on equity of 2.15% and a negative net margin of 1.50%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BlackLine will post 1.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BlackLine

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Meritage Group LP purchased a new position in BlackLine during the 3rd quarter valued at $59,530,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackLine in the third quarter worth $597,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the third quarter worth $13,130,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 33.5% during the third 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 period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 6.1% in the third 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 last quarter. 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.