BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Raised to Neutral at Piper Sandler

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at Piper Sandler from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $62.00 target price on the technology company's stock, up from their prior target price of $55.00. Piper Sandler's price objective suggests a potential upside of 0.88% from the stock's current price.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on BL. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on BlackLine from $65.00 to $61.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wolfe Research started coverage on BlackLine in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. William Blair lowered BlackLine from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on BlackLine from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on BlackLine from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $62.20.

BlackLine Stock Performance

BlackLine stock traded up $3.07 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $61.46. 641,462 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 913,006. 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 firm's 50 day moving average price is $62.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -614.60, a P/E/G ratio of 10.19 and a beta of 0.86. BlackLine has a 1 year low of $47.26 and a 1 year high of $69.31.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $155.73 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 expect that BlackLine will post 1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of the company'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 sale, the director now owns 11,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $632,500. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, 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 transaction of $258,750.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,000 shares in the company, valued at $632,500. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, 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 stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Meritage Group LP bought a new position in shares of BlackLine in the third quarter valued at approximately $59,530,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in BlackLine in the third quarter worth approximately $597,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in BlackLine in the third quarter worth approximately $13,130,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in BlackLine by 33.5% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 320,139 shares of the technology company's stock worth $17,758,000 after buying an additional 80,391 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in 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 buying an additional 380,614 shares during the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.