Creative Planning Increases Stake in BlackLine $BL

Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) by 40.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,170 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 4,636 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in BlackLine were worth $916,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in BlackLine by 9.4% in the second quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,618 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $148,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in BlackLine in the 2nd quarter valued at about $257,000. Andra AP fonden boosted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 48.8% in the second quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 89,500 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,067,000 after acquiring an additional 29,354 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp purchased a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the second quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank grew its stake in BlackLine by 57.5% during the 2nd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,235 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $70,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at BlackLine

In related news, Director Thomas Unterman sold 910 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $50,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 41,835 shares in the company, valued at $2,300,925. This trade represents a 2.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 8.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on BlackLine from $68.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research raised BlackLine from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Monday, November 24th. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded BlackLine to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackLine has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.92.

BlackLine Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BL opened at $56.09 on Tuesday. BlackLine has a 1-year low of $40.82 and a 1-year high of $66.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $53.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $54.39. The firm has a market cap of $3.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.56 and a beta of 0.88.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.51. The firm had revenue of $178.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.11 million. BlackLine had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 14.51%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. BlackLine has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.080-2.130 EPS. Q4 2025 guidance at 0.580-0.610 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BlackLine will post 0.9 EPS for the current year.

About BlackLine

BlackLine, Inc operates a cloud-based software platform which is designed to transform accounting and finance operations for organizations of all types and sizes. Its scalable platform supports critical accounting processes such as the financial close, account reconciliations, intercompany accounting, and controls assurance.