ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Invests $229,000 in BlackLine $BL

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,043 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Strs Ohio bought a new position in BlackLine during the first quarter valued at approximately $82,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its position in BlackLine by 67.6% during the first quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 2,122 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $103,000 after acquiring an additional 856 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in BlackLine by 33.9% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,919 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $141,000 after acquiring an additional 739 shares in the last quarter. Virtus Advisers LLC bought a new position in BlackLine during the first quarter valued at approximately $182,000. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd raised its position in BlackLine by 282.6% during the first quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd now owns 4,277 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $207,000 after acquiring an additional 3,159 shares in the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of BlackLine from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $67.00 price target (up previously from $58.00) on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $56.00 price target on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.58.

BlackLine Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of BL stock opened at $51.61 on Friday. BlackLine has a 1 year low of $40.82 and a 1 year high of $66.25. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.47 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.61.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.01. BlackLine had a net margin of 13.05% and a return on equity of 15.95%. The business had revenue of $172.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $170.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.58 earnings per share. BlackLine’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. BlackLine has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.130-2.240 EPS. Q3 2025 guidance at 0.480-0.510 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BlackLine will post 0.9 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Michelle D. Stalick sold 664 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.03, for a total transaction of $35,875.92. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 23,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,287,534.90. The trade was a 2.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Unterman sold 910 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total transaction of $50,050.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 42,745 shares in the company, valued at $2,350,975. This trade represents a 2.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,369 shares of company stock worth $186,155 in the last ninety days. 8.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BlackLine Profile

BlackLine, Inc operates a cloud-based software platform which is designed to transform accounting and finance operations for organizations of all types and sizes. Its scalable platform supports critical accounting processes such as the financial close, account reconciliations, intercompany accounting, and controls assurance.