Piper Sandler Has Lowered Expectations for BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Stock Price

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) had its price objective dropped by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from $60.00 to $58.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underweight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price target indicates a potential upside of 10.98% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on BL. Citigroup upgraded shares of BlackLine from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $73.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BlackLine from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $86.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.40.

BlackLine Stock Performance

BlackLine stock opened at $52.26 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.69 and a quick ratio of 2.69. BlackLine has a 1-year low of $43.37 and a 1-year high of $69.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.14 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s 50-day moving average is $61.62 and its 200 day moving average is $56.77.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The technology company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.29). BlackLine had a return on equity of 31.02% and a net margin of 19.83%. Research analysts forecast that BlackLine will post 1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 24,408 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.32, for a total transaction of $1,569,922.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 72,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,690,214.40. This trade represents a 25.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 9.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackLine

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in BlackLine during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its position in BlackLine by 568.4% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 528 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 449 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in BlackLine by 243.5% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 414 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of BlackLine by 41.2% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 634 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

About BlackLine

BlackLine, Inc operates a cloud-based software platform which is designed to transform accounting and finance operations for organizations of all types and sizes. Its scalable platform supports critical accounting processes such as the financial close, account reconciliations, intercompany accounting, and controls assurance.