BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $57.96, but opened at $59.46. BlackLine shares last traded at $58.72, with a volume of 32,505 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on BlackLine from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on BlackLine from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, BTIG Research cut their price target on BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.60.

BlackLine Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.95 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day moving average of $55.56 and a 200-day moving average of $51.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 2.69.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Mark Partin sold 5,648 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total transaction of $299,344.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 226,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,022,732. This trade represents a 2.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 27,079 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.06, for a total value of $1,626,364.74. Following the sale, the insider now owns 113,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,838,731.90. This represents a 19.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 134,108 shares of company stock worth $7,488,826. Insiders own 9.53% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackLine

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BL. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of BlackLine in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackLine in the 1st quarter worth approximately $36,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of BlackLine in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $64,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 31.9% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,392 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 337 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 13.0% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,306 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $112,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.