BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Given New $28.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) had its price target reduced by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $30.00 to $28.00 in a report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 3.32% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Scotiabank lowered shares of BlackLine to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of BlackLine from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of BlackLine from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $36.00 price target on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, DA Davidson cut BlackLine from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $30.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.67.

BlackLine Stock Performance

BL traded up $1.21 during trading on Monday, hitting $27.10. The stock had a trading volume of 830,644 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,173,121. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $30.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.59. The firm has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.67. BlackLine has a one year low of $24.70 and a one year high of $59.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.72.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 5th. The technology company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.01. BlackLine had a return on equity of 23.73% and a net margin of 5.37%. The firm had revenue of $193.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $194.17 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.51 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that BlackLine will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BlackLine

In other BlackLine news, Director Therese Tucker sold 70,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.96, for a total transaction of $2,237,200.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 381,557 shares in the company, valued at $12,194,561.72. This represents a 15.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Michelle D. Stalick sold 780 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.65, for a total transaction of $26,247.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 34,712 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,168,058.80. This represents a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 9.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 26.3% in the 1st quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 1,890,823 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $69,960,000 after purchasing an additional 393,192 shares in the last quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackLine in the 2nd quarter valued at $58,584,000. Engaged Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 26.2% during the 1st quarter. Engaged Capital LLC now owns 1,367,619 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $50,602,000 after buying an additional 284,000 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 20.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,063,655 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,354,000 after buying an additional 181,577 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the 2nd quarter worth $27,532,000. 95.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BlackLine Company Profile

BlackLine, Inc provides cloud-based financial operations and accounting automation software for businesses. Its platform is designed to help accounting and finance teams manage, standardize and automate processes that traditionally rely on spreadsheets, manual data entry and disconnected systems.

The company’s products support financial close and consolidation, account reconciliations, transaction matching, intercompany accounting, accounts receivable automation and invoice-to-cash workflows.