Granite Investment Partners LLC Trims Stock Position in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Granite Investment Partners LLC reduced its stake in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 78.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 96,426 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 358,162 shares during the period. Granite Investment Partners LLC owned 0.16% of BlackLine worth $4,672,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BL. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackLine in the first quarter worth approximately $33,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in BlackLine during the 1st quarter valued at $36,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackLine during the 2nd quarter valued at $64,000. Covestor Ltd increased its position in BlackLine by 29.4% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,495 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in BlackLine by 13.0% in the second 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 last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of BlackLine from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on BlackLine from $55.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $62.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.78.

Insider Activity at BlackLine

In related news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 115,424 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,771,200. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other BlackLine news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 approximately $5,771,200. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total transaction of $71,707.90. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 97,582 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,044,989.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,765 shares of company stock worth $851,418 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 9.93% of the company’s stock.

BlackLine Stock Up 0.1 %

NASDAQ:BL opened at $51.98 on Friday. BlackLine, Inc. has a twelve month low of $43.37 and a twelve month high of $69.31. The company’s 50 day moving average is $49.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $53.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74. The company has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a PE ratio of 226.00, a P/E/G ratio of 12.21 and a beta of 0.89.

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

BlackLine 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.