Short Interest in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Expands By 9.9%

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,220,000 shares, a growth of 9.9% from the March 15th total of 3,840,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 953,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.4 days. Approximately 10.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackLine news, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total transaction of $258,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $632,500. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Thomas Unterman sold 750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $45,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 51,470 shares in the company, valued at $3,088,200. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kevin B. Thompson sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.50, for a total transaction of $258,750.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $632,500. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 9.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackLine

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Meritage Group LP purchased a new stake in BlackLine in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $59,530,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $597,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in BlackLine during the third quarter worth $13,130,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of BlackLine by 33.5% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 320,139 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,758,000 after buying an additional 80,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 6.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,658,540 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $369,349,000 after purchasing an additional 380,614 shares in the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on BL. Wolfe Research began coverage on BlackLine in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on BlackLine from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on BlackLine from $65.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of BlackLine from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.80.

BlackLine Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BL traded down $0.21 on Monday, reaching $63.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 12,902 shares, compared to its average volume of 917,188. BlackLine has a 52-week low of $47.26 and a 52-week high of $69.31. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $62.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37, a current ratio of 2.19 and a quick ratio of 2.19.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.28. BlackLine had a positive return on equity of 2.15% and a negative net margin of 1.50%. The firm had revenue of $155.73 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $154.24 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackLine will post 1.02 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackLine Company 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.