BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Short Interest Up 7.3% in September

by · The Markets Daily

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL – Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,710,000 shares, a growth of 7.3% from the September 15th total of 4,390,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 773,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.1 days. Currently, 9.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of BlackLine from $62.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on BlackLine from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded BlackLine from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $60.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. BTIG Research reduced their price target on shares of BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.90.

Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on BL

BlackLine Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ BL opened at $59.19 on Friday. BlackLine has a 1 year low of $43.37 and a 1 year high of $69.31. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $51.89 and its 200-day moving average is $52.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.66 billion, a PE ratio of 257.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.57 and a beta of 0.90.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $160.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $158.21 million. BlackLine had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 33.96%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.69) earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that BlackLine will post 0.96 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BlackLine

In other BlackLine news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 115,424 shares in the company, valued at $5,771,200. This trade represents a 0.00 % 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. In other news, CFO Mark Partin sold 85,308 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.84, for a total value of $4,678,290.72. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 226,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,440,124.96. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 115,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,771,200. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 123,794 shares of company stock valued at $6,713,879. Company insiders own 9.93% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackLine

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in BlackLine by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,738,189 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $420,733,000 after purchasing an additional 79,649 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in BlackLine by 42.9% during the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 7,133 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $445,000 after acquiring an additional 2,140 shares in the last quarter. Overbrook Management Corp acquired a new position in BlackLine in the first quarter valued at about $275,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the first quarter worth about $2,000,000. Finally, Norden Group LLC raised its position in shares of BlackLine by 2,200.0% during the first quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 116,909 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $7,550,000 after purchasing an additional 111,826 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

BlackLine Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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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