Short Interest in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Increases By 7.3%

BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL - Get Free Report) was the target of a large increase in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,710,000 shares, an increase of 7.3% from the September 15th total of 4,390,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 773,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.1 days. Approximately 9.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Transactions at BlackLine

In related news, CFO Mark Partin sold 5,648 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 226,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,022,732. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other BlackLine news, CFO Mark Partin sold 5,648 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total value of $299,344.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 226,844 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,022,732. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $500,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 115,424 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,771,200. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 123,794 shares of company stock valued at $6,713,879 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 9.93% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackLine by 9.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,380,961 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $476,662,000 after acquiring an additional 642,772 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in BlackLine during the 2nd quarter valued at $15,128,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BlackLine by 3,945.7% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 265,845 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $17,168,000 after purchasing an additional 259,274 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 65.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 579,481 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $28,076,000 after buying an additional 229,151 shares during the period. Finally, Clearline Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the second quarter valued at $7,673,000. Institutional investors own 95.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $62.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of BlackLine from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, BTIG Research cut their price objective on BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackLine presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $59.90.

BlackLine Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BL traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $58.29. The company's stock had a trading volume of 807,595 shares, compared to its average volume of 908,542. The firm has a market cap of $3.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 250.52, a P/E/G ratio of 13.57 and a beta of 0.90. BlackLine has a 1-year low of $43.37 and a 1-year high of $69.31. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $51.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a current ratio of 1.95.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. BlackLine had a return on equity of 33.96% and a net margin of 19.46%. The business had revenue of $160.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $158.21 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.69) EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackLine will post 0.96 EPS for the current fiscal 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.

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