Hills Bank & Trust Co Trims Holdings in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Hills Bank & Trust Co reduced its holdings in shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 15.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,750 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,375 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in BlackLine were worth $484,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 94.8% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 452 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the 4th quarter worth $38,000. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackLine by 505.2% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 926 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 773 shares during the last quarter. Operose Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 291.2% during the third quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 978 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cutler Group LLC CA bought a new stake in BlackLine in the 3rd quarter worth about $74,000. Institutional investors own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on BlackLine from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on BlackLine from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of BlackLine in a report on Monday, March 18th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of BlackLine from $61.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of BlackLine from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackLine currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $64.10.

BlackLine Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ:BL traded down $0.52 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $58.99. 831,029 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 890,318. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 256.48, a P/E/G ratio of 10.82 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $62.59 and its 200-day moving average is $59.62. BlackLine, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.26 and a 12-month high of $69.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 2.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.28. The company had revenue of $155.73 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.24 million. BlackLine had a negative net margin of 1.50% and a positive return on equity of 2.15%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that BlackLine, Inc. will post 1.02 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackLine news, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of BlackLine 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,500. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other BlackLine news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 2,877 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.00, for a total value of $166,866.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 104,682 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,556. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of BlackLine 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 sale, the director now owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $632,500. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 9.93% 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.