Citigroup Issues Pessimistic Forecast for BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Stock Price

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) had its price objective dropped by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $45.00 to $40.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Citigroup‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 46.01% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on BL. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird set a $35.00 target price on shares of BlackLine in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of BlackLine to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. DA Davidson lowered shares of BlackLine from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $30.00 to $23.00 in a report on Monday, September 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of BlackLine from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackLine has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.58.

BlackLine Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BL traded up $1.50 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $27.39. The company had a trading volume of 1,066,796 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,174,222. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.16. The stock has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a PE ratio of 41.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $30.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.59. BlackLine has a 1-year low of $24.70 and a 1-year high of $59.57.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The technology company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.01. BlackLine had a return on equity of 23.73% and a net margin of 5.37%. The business had revenue of $193.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $194.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. BlackLine’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BlackLine will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other BlackLine news, CAO Michelle D. Stalick sold 780 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.65, for a total transaction of $26,247.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 34,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,168,058.80. The trade was a 2.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Therese Tucker sold 70,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.96, for a total value of $2,237,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 381,557 shares in the company, valued at $12,194,561.72. This represents a 15.50% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 9.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackLine

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its position in BlackLine by 25.9% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,592 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 739 shares in the last quarter. Gagnon Advisors LLC lifted its position in BlackLine by 98.3% in the 3rd quarter. Gagnon Advisors LLC now owns 257,915 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,842,000 after buying an additional 127,865 shares in the last quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 38.4% during the 3rd quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC now owns 520,030 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $13,796,000 after acquiring an additional 144,261 shares in the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its stake in shares of BlackLine by 43.5% in the third quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 10,442 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 3,166 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP increased its stake in shares of BlackLine by 30,304.0% in the third quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 15,202 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $401,000 after acquiring an additional 15,152 shares during the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About BlackLine

BlackLine, Inc provides cloud-based financial operations and accounting automation software for businesses. Its platform is designed to help accounting and finance teams manage, standardize and automate processes that traditionally rely on spreadsheets, manual data entry and disconnected systems.

The company’s products support financial close and consolidation, account reconciliations, transaction matching, intercompany accounting, accounts receivable automation and invoice-to-cash workflows.