Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Stock

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Piper Sandler from $51.00 to $60.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the technology company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price indicates a potential upside of 0.93% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on BL. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on BlackLine from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on BlackLine from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Finally, BTIG Research decreased their price objective on BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BlackLine currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.10.

BlackLine Stock Up 1.4 %

BL stock opened at $59.45 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $51.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74. BlackLine has a 1-year low of $43.37 and a 1-year high of $69.31. The stock has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.06, a P/E/G ratio of 13.50 and a beta of 0.90.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $160.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $158.21 million. BlackLine had a return on equity of 33.96% and a net margin of 19.46%. The business’s revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.69) earnings per share. Analysts expect that BlackLine will post 0.96 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackLine news, CFO Mark Partin sold 85,308 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.84, for a total value of $4,678,290.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 226,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,440,124.96. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total transaction of $71,707.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 97,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,044,989.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Mark Partin sold 85,308 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 226,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,440,124.96. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 140,873 shares of company stock worth $7,840,243. 9.53% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackLine

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in BlackLine by 13.0% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,306 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $112,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 14,638 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $709,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 31.9% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,392 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,000 after buying an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackLine in the 1st quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 25,800 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,250,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.