BMO Capital Markets Has Lowered Expectations for BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Stock Price

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) had its price target lowered by stock analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $68.00 to $60.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “market perform” rating on the technology company’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 14.90% from the stock’s current price.

BL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Citigroup raised BlackLine from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on BlackLine from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered BlackLine from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on BlackLine from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackLine presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.20.

BlackLine Price Performance

BL stock traded down $11.18 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $52.22. The company had a trading volume of 1,638,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 590,008. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $61.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.69, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42. The company has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.28, a P/E/G ratio of 9.14 and a beta of 0.92. BlackLine has a fifty-two week low of $43.37 and a fifty-two week high of $69.31.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The technology company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.29). BlackLine had a return on equity of 31.02% and a net margin of 19.83%. Equities research analysts expect that BlackLine will post 1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BlackLine

In related news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 24,408 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.32, for a total value of $1,569,922.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 72,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,690,214.40. This represents a 25.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 9.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackLine

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BL. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 13.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 290,775 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,033,000 after acquiring an additional 34,919 shares in the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 307.5% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,452 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $907,000 after acquiring an additional 12,415 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 61.9% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 25,677 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,416,000 after acquiring an additional 9,820 shares in the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the third quarter worth about $1,506,000. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 74.0% in the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 204,328 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,335,000 after acquiring an additional 86,931 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

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.