Axa S.A. Has $1.44 Million Stock Holdings in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Axa S.A. reduced its holdings in shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 29,793 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,428 shares during the period. Axa S.A.’s holdings in BlackLine were worth $1,443,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of BL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in BlackLine by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,380,961 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $476,662,000 after purchasing an additional 642,772 shares during the last quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP increased its holdings in BlackLine by 85.4% in the 4th quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 730,259 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,597,000 after purchasing an additional 336,298 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in BlackLine in the second quarter valued at about $15,128,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of BlackLine during the fourth quarter valued at about $16,927,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 3,945.7% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 265,845 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,168,000 after purchasing an additional 259,274 shares during the last quarter. 95.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. BTIG Research cut their target price on shares of BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of BlackLine from $72.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of BlackLine in a report on Monday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley upgraded BlackLine from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $60.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of BlackLine from $62.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.90.

BlackLine Trading Up 4.3 %

NASDAQ:BL opened at $55.14 on Tuesday. BlackLine, Inc. has a 12 month low of $43.37 and a 12 month high of $69.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 239.74, a PEG ratio of 12.80 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.93.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The technology company reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.08. BlackLine had a return on equity of 33.96% and a net margin of 19.46%. The company had revenue of $160.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $158.21 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.69) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that BlackLine, Inc. will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackLine

In other BlackLine news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total transaction of $71,707.90. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 97,582 shares in the company, valued at $5,044,989.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CFO Mark Partin sold 5,648 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total value of $299,344.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 226,844 shares in the company, valued at $12,022,732. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total transaction of $71,707.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 97,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,044,989.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 22,413 shares of company stock valued at $1,150,762. Company insiders own 9.93% of the company’s stock.

About BlackLine

BlackLine, Inc provides cloud-based solutions to automate and streamline accounting and finance operations worldwide. It offers financial close management solutions, such as account reconciliations that provides a centralized workspace for users to collaborate on account reconciliations; transaction matching that analyzes and reconciles individual transactions; task management to create and manage processes and task lists; and financial reporting analytics that enables analysis and validation of financial data.