Balyasny Asset Management L.P. Boosts Stock Position in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 365.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 405,801 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 318,647 shares during the quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in BlackLine were worth $24,656,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 290,775 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $16,033,000 after buying an additional 34,919 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackLine by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,113,882 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $128,439,000 after purchasing an additional 354,784 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in BlackLine by 154.1% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,159 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 2,522 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of BlackLine by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 147,381 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,955,000 after acquiring an additional 8,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP bought a new position in shares of BlackLine in the fourth quarter worth about $244,000. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackLine news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 9,088 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.67, for a total value of $451,400.96. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 65,414 shares in the company, valued at $3,249,113.38. This represents a 12.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 8.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $86.00 target price on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $80.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of BlackLine from $68.00 to $60.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of BlackLine from $55.00 to $40.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of BlackLine from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackLine presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.00.

BlackLine Price Performance

Shares of BlackLine stock opened at $46.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a current ratio of 2.59. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $47.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.24. BlackLine, Inc. has a one year low of $40.82 and a one year high of $66.25.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The technology company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $166.93 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $167.32 million. BlackLine had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 21.63%. The business’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that BlackLine, Inc. will post 0.9 EPS 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.