O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC Takes $290,000 Position in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 4,774 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $290,000.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on BL. DA Davidson started coverage on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on BlackLine from $68.00 to $60.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on BlackLine from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of BlackLine from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price target on BlackLine from $55.00 to $40.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $64.27.

BlackLine Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BL opened at $45.59 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.44, a P/E/G ratio of 10.80 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 2.69. BlackLine, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $40.82 and a fifty-two week high of $66.25.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The technology company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by ($0.29). BlackLine had a return on equity of 21.63% and a net margin of 24.67%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackLine, Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at BlackLine

In other news, CRO Mark Woodhams sold 9,088 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.67, for a total transaction of $451,400.96. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 65,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,249,113.38. This represents a 12.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 9.93% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BlackLine Company Profile

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.