BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,390,000 shares, a decrease of 6.6% from the August 31st total of 4,700,000 shares. Currently, 8.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 877,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.0 days.

BlackLine Trading Down 1.8 %

BlackLine stock opened at $54.13 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $49.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $52.85. BlackLine has a 52-week low of $43.37 and a 52-week high of $69.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 235.35, a PEG ratio of 12.80 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. BlackLine had a return on equity of 33.96% and a net margin of 19.46%. The company had revenue of $160.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $158.21 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.69) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackLine will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BL. Truist Financial cut their target price on BlackLine from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a report on Monday, July 15th. BTIG Research decreased their target price on BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded BlackLine from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $70.00 in a report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.90.

Insider Activity

In other BlackLine news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total transaction of $71,707.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 97,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,044,989.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 115,424 shares in the company, valued at $5,771,200. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total transaction of $71,707.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 97,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,044,989.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 117,721 shares of company stock worth $6,379,052 over the last ninety days. 9.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackLine

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in BlackLine by 346.5% during the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 31,846 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,055,000 after buying an additional 24,713 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the 1st quarter worth $1,572,000. Comerica Bank grew its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 11.8% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 124,266 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,025,000 after acquiring an additional 13,066 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the first quarter worth $2,000,000. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky purchased a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the first quarter valued at $907,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.