Marshall Wace LLP Cuts Stock Holdings in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Marshall Wace LLP cut its stake in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL - Free Report) by 99.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 67,681 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 8,932,319 shares during the quarter. Marshall Wace LLP owned 0.11% of BlackLine worth $3,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 6,571 shares of the technology company's stock worth $410,000 after acquiring an additional 680 shares during the period. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,076,000. PEAK6 Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackLine by 385.5% in the 4th quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 59,484 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,714,000 after purchasing an additional 47,233 shares during the period. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 85.4% in the fourth quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 730,259 shares of the technology company's stock worth $45,597,000 after buying an additional 336,298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vancity Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Vancity Investment Management Ltd now owns 14,631 shares of the technology company's stock worth $914,000 after buying an additional 2,837 shares during the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on BL. Morgan Stanley raised shares of BlackLine from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their target price for the company from $60.00 to $70.00 in a report on Monday. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. JMP Securities reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $81.00 price target on shares of BlackLine in a report on Monday, July 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on BlackLine from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on BlackLine from $62.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackLine currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $59.90.

Insider Activity at BlackLine

In related news, 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 transaction of $500,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 115,424 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,771,200. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $500,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 115,424 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,771,200. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Mark Partin sold 85,308 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.84, for a total value of $4,678,290.72. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 226,844 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $12,440,124.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 117,721 shares of company stock valued at $6,379,052. Insiders own 9.93% of the company's stock.

BlackLine Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BL traded down $0.71 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $53.89. 498,862 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 924,772. The stock has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a PE ratio of 237.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.80 and a beta of 0.89. The business's fifty day moving average is $49.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.78. BlackLine, Inc. has a one year low of $43.37 and a one year high of $69.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $160.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $158.21 million. BlackLine had a return on equity of 33.96% and a net margin of 19.46%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.69) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that BlackLine, Inc. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

About BlackLine

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.