BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Upgraded by Morgan Stanley to Overweight

by · The Markets Daily

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL – Free Report) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $70.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $60.00.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities reiterated a market outperform rating and issued a $81.00 price target on shares of BlackLine in a report on Monday, July 15th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $62.00 to $54.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $59.90.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on BlackLine

BlackLine Stock Down 1.3 %

BL stock opened at $53.89 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $49.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $52.78. BlackLine has a 12 month low of $43.37 and a 12 month high of $69.31. The company has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 234.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.80 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.95.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. BlackLine had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 33.96%. The firm had revenue of $160.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $158.21 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.69) EPS. BlackLine’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackLine will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackLine news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $500,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 115,424 shares in the company, valued at $5,771,200. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $500,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 115,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,771,200. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Mark Partin sold 85,308 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 226,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,440,124.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 117,721 shares of company stock worth $6,379,052. Insiders own 9.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BL. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in BlackLine in the third quarter worth about $2,286,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BlackLine in the second quarter worth about $220,000. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its position in BlackLine by 39.6% in the second quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 19,600 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 5,563 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in BlackLine by 5.6% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 25,701 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,245,000 after purchasing an additional 1,357 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP acquired a new stake in BlackLine in the second quarter worth about $32,000. 95.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BlackLine Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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