BMO Capital Markets Has Lowered Expectations for BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Stock Price

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) had its price objective lowered by BMO Capital Markets from $68.00 to $60.00 in a report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the technology company’s stock.

BL has been the subject of several other reports. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America upgraded shares of BlackLine from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $50.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BlackLine from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Citigroup raised 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.40.

BlackLine Trading Down 18.1 %

Shares of BL opened at $51.94 on Wednesday. BlackLine has a fifty-two week low of $43.37 and a fifty-two week high of $69.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 2.69. The company’s fifty day moving average is $61.62 and its 200 day moving average is $56.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.25 billion, a PE ratio of 53.00, a P/E/G ratio of 9.14 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Insider Transactions at BlackLine

In related news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 24,408 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive now directly 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 9.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackLine

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 6,475 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $393,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in BlackLine by 41.2% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 634 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of BlackLine by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,322 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $931,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 0.8% in 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 buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 19.8% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.