BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Short Interest Update

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,220,000 shares, a growth of 9.9% from the March 15th total of 3,840,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 953,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.4 days. Approximately 10.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Transactions at BlackLine

In other news, Director Thomas Unterman sold 750 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $45,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 51,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,088,200. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other BlackLine news, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $632,500. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Unterman sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $45,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 51,470 shares in the company, valued at $3,088,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 9.53% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackLine

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Meritage Group LP purchased a new stake in BlackLine during the third quarter worth $59,530,000. UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of BlackLine by 855.5% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 657,004 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $36,444,000 after purchasing an additional 588,245 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of BlackLine by 275.4% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 715,319 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $47,640,000 after purchasing an additional 524,773 shares in the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of BlackLine during the third quarter worth $21,853,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BlackLine by 6.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,658,540 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $369,349,000 after purchasing an additional 380,614 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

BlackLine Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ BL traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $60.70. The stock had a trading volume of 228,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 918,353. The company has a current ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 2.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37. The firm has a market cap of $3.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -608.30, a P/E/G ratio of 11.29 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $62.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.05. BlackLine has a 52-week low of $47.26 and a 52-week high of $69.31.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $155.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $154.24 million. BlackLine had a positive return on equity of 2.15% and a negative net margin of 1.50%. Analysts expect that BlackLine will post 1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on BL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on BlackLine from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on BlackLine from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $81.00 target price on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. William Blair cut BlackLine from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on BlackLine from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackLine currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.80.

BlackLine Company Profile

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.