BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Upgraded to “Buy” at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Citigroup currently has $73.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on BL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on BlackLine from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 target price on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on BlackLine from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered BlackLine from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.00.

BlackLine Price Performance

BL stock opened at $59.65 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.94. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 60.87, a P/E/G ratio of 12.60 and a beta of 0.91. BlackLine has a one year low of $43.37 and a one year high of $69.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.69 and a quick ratio of 2.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 24,408 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.32, for a total transaction of $1,569,922.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 72,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,690,214.40. This trade represents a 25.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 9.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dakota Wealth Management purchased a new stake in BlackLine during the 4th quarter valued at $244,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in BlackLine by 41.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 634 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in BlackLine by 35.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,666,591 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $91,896,000 after purchasing an additional 435,271 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in 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 last quarter. Finally, 272 Capital LP lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 30.8% during the 3rd quarter. 272 Capital LP now owns 68,437 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,774,000 after buying an additional 16,107 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.