Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 14,256 Shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 4.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 305,031 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,256 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.49% of BlackLine worth $18,534,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in BlackLine by 41.2% during the 4th 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. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 25,100 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,525,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of BlackLine by 19.8% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 1,266 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,000 after buying an additional 209 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in BlackLine by 1.6% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 13,539 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $747,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in BlackLine by 31.9% in the third 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 period. 95.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at BlackLine

In related news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 24,408 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.32, for a total transaction of $1,569,922.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 72,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,690,214.40. This represents a 25.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 9.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on BlackLine from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Citigroup reduced their price target on BlackLine from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Bank of America raised BlackLine from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of BlackLine from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of BlackLine from $68.00 to $60.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BlackLine presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.40.

BlackLine Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ BL opened at $49.11 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $59.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.04. BlackLine, Inc. has a 52-week low of $43.37 and a 52-week high of $69.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 2.59. The company has a market cap of $3.07 billion, a PE ratio of 33.87, a P/E/G ratio of 10.50 and a beta of 0.92.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The technology company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.29). BlackLine had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 21.63%. On average, equities research analysts expect that BlackLine, Inc. will post 0.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.