Granite Investment Partners LLC Sells 6,850 Shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Granite Investment Partners LLC reduced its position in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 7.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 89,805 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,850 shares during the quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC owned approximately 0.14% of BlackLine worth $5,457,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in BlackLine by 35.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,666,591 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $91,896,000 after acquiring an additional 435,271 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in BlackLine by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,282,017 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $70,704,000 after purchasing an additional 3,498 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in BlackLine by 12,538.0% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 896,665 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $54,481,000 after purchasing an additional 889,570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 501,699 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $30,483,000 after purchasing an additional 6,477 shares during the period. 95.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on BL shares. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of BlackLine from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $86.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Truist Financial lowered their target price 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. Piper Sandler cut their price target on BlackLine from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Bank of America raised BlackLine from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.27.

Insider Transactions at BlackLine

In other BlackLine news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 9,088 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.67, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 12.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 9.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BlackLine Price Performance

BL stock opened at $45.59 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $50.10 and a 200-day moving average of $56.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 0.97. BlackLine, Inc. has a 12 month low of $40.82 and a 12 month high of $66.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The technology company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.29). BlackLine had a return on equity of 21.63% and a net margin of 24.67%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BlackLine, Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackLine Profile

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.