Short Interest in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Decreases By 18.4%

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totalling 3,280,000 shares, a drop of 18.4% from the April 15th total of 4,020,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,040,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days. Approximately 6.5% of the company's shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackLine

In other BlackLine news, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total transaction of $258,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,000 shares in the company, valued at $632,500. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 2,877 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total transaction of $166,866.00. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 104,682 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,071,556. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total transaction of $258,750.00. Following the completion of 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. Company insiders own 9.93% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackLine

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Meritage Group LP purchased a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the third quarter worth about $59,530,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in BlackLine by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,380,961 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $476,662,000 after acquiring an additional 642,772 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 855.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 657,004 shares of the technology company's stock worth $36,444,000 after purchasing an additional 588,245 shares during the period. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the third quarter worth $21,853,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the fourth quarter worth $16,927,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.13% of the company's stock.

BlackLine Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BL traded down $0.08 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $57.84. 522,042 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 882,236. The company has a market cap of $3.58 billion, a PE ratio of 251.48, a P/E/G ratio of 7.25 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.30, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.08. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $62.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.89. BlackLine has a 12-month low of $47.26 and a 12-month high of $69.31.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 2.30%. The business had revenue of $155.73 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.24 million. On average, analysts forecast that BlackLine will post 1.01 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on BL shares. William Blair upgraded BlackLine to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $66.00 to $63.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of BlackLine from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Finally, 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $64.10.

BlackLine Company Profile

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.

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