First Trust Advisors LP Increases Stake in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL - Free Report) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 456,038 shares of the technology company's stock after acquiring an additional 28,310 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.73% of BlackLine worth $27,709,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of BlackLine during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in shares of 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 increased its position in shares of 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 increased its position in shares of BlackLine by 41.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 634 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackLine during the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. Institutional investors own 95.13% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at BlackLine

In other BlackLine news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 9,088 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.67, for a total transaction of $451,400.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 65,414 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,249,113.38. This represents a 12.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 8.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of BlackLine from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $58.00 to $46.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $51.00 to $43.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $58.00 to $55.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $80.00 to $65.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued 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, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $60.00.

BlackLine Stock Performance

BlackLine stock traded up $0.95 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $47.80. 575,858 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 804,026. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day moving average of $47.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $55.68. BlackLine, Inc. has a 12 month low of $40.82 and a 12 month high of $66.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 2.69.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL - Get Free Report) last issued 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 net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 21.63%. As a group, research analysts predict that BlackLine, Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current 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.