Morgan Stanley Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) Stock

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) had its price target increased by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $70.00 to $80.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 34.88% from the company’s current price.

BL has been the topic of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BlackLine from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on BlackLine from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of BlackLine from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. BTIG Research lowered their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.60.

BlackLine Stock Performance

NASDAQ BL opened at $59.31 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $55.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 2.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42. BlackLine has a twelve month low of $43.37 and a twelve month high of $69.31. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 15.28 and a beta of 0.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Mark Partin sold 5,648 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total value of $299,344.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 226,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,022,732. The trade was a 2.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 1,387 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.70, for a total value of $71,707.90. Following the sale, the executive now owns 97,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,044,989.40. This trade represents a 1.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 135,495 shares of company stock worth $7,560,534. Company insiders own 9.93% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackLine

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in BlackLine by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,380,961 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $476,662,000 after purchasing an additional 642,772 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackLine by 1.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,275 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $284,152,000 after purchasing an additional 64,435 shares during the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 24.9% during the third quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,759,098 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $96,997,000 after purchasing an additional 350,143 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $70,704,000 after buying an additional 3,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in BlackLine by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 895,810 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $49,395,000 after buying an additional 24,446 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.13% 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.