Swiss National Bank Increases Position in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 104,000 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in BlackLine were worth $6,319,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in BlackLine by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 6,475 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in BlackLine by 41.2% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 634 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in BlackLine by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,322 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $931,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in BlackLine by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 25,100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,525,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in BlackLine by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 1,266 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,000 after buying an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

BlackLine Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ BL opened at $50.29 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.68, a P/E/G ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 2.69. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.80. BlackLine, Inc. has a 1 year low of $43.37 and a 1 year high of $69.09.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last posted its earnings results 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 net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 21.63%. On average, equities research analysts predict that BlackLine, Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America upgraded BlackLine from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $50.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered BlackLine from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of BlackLine from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $86.00 price target on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackLine has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackLine news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 9,088 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was 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 represents a 12.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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.