Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires 70,000 Shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 17.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 480,000 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 70,000 shares during the quarter. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in BlackLine were worth $29,165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BL. Engaged Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackLine in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,620,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake 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 buying an additional 435,271 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in BlackLine by 20.2% during the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,113,882 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $128,439,000 after buying an additional 354,784 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in BlackLine by 3,027.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 224,944 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $12,403,000 after acquiring an additional 217,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in BlackLine by 63.0% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 317,991 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,534,000 after acquiring an additional 122,849 shares in the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BlackLine Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BL opened at $63.40 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.14 and a beta of 0.92. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $61.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.69 and a quick ratio of 2.69. BlackLine, Inc. has a 1 year low of $43.37 and a 1 year high of $69.31.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The technology company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.29). BlackLine had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 31.02%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that BlackLine, Inc. will post 1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut BlackLine from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of BlackLine from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Citigroup raised shares of BlackLine from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $73.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 price target on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered BlackLine from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Two investment 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, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.10.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackLine

In other BlackLine news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 24,408 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 72,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,690,214.40. This trade represents a 25.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 9.93% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.