BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) saw a large increase in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,890,000 shares, an increase of 6.1% from the October 31st total of 4,610,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 663,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.4 days. Approximately 9.5% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. JMP Securities upped their price objective on BlackLine from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Truist Financial raised their target price on BlackLine from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. BTIG Research dropped their price target on BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on BlackLine from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackLine has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $64.10.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackLine news, CFO Mark Partin sold 5,648 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total transaction of $299,344.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 226,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,022,732. The trade was a 2.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 27,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.06, for a total transaction of $1,626,364.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 113,865 shares in the company, valued at $6,838,731.90. This trade represents a 19.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,108 shares of company stock valued at $7,488,826 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 9.53% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackLine

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of BlackLine during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackLine during the 2nd quarter worth about $64,000. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in BlackLine by 31.9% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,392 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in BlackLine by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,306 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $112,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the period. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in BlackLine in the second quarter worth about $145,000. 95.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BlackLine Stock Performance

Shares of BL traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $62.04. 95,084 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 871,723. BlackLine has a 1 year low of $43.37 and a 1 year high of $69.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 2.69. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $57.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.80. The stock has a market cap of $3.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.64, a P/E/G ratio of 14.56 and a beta of 0.90.

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.