Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases Shares of 22,200 BlackLine $BL

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 22,200 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $821,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. First Manhattan CO. LLC. raised its holdings in shares of BlackLine by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 2,428,604 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $134,278,000 after acquiring an additional 340,606 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in BlackLine during the 4th quarter valued at $80,787,000. Engaged Capital LLC raised its holdings in BlackLine by 138.8% in the 4th quarter. Engaged Capital LLC now owns 1,083,619 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $59,913,000 after purchasing an additional 629,825 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in BlackLine by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 882,078 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $48,776,000 after purchasing an additional 23,943 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of BlackLine by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 513,891 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $27,288,000 after purchasing an additional 26,699 shares during the period. 95.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BL shares. Robert W. Baird set a $40.00 target price on shares of BlackLine in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $68.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on BlackLine from $50.00 to $32.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on BlackLine from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of BlackLine in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackLine news, Director Gregory Hughes sold 1,637 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.25, for a total value of $49,519.25. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $234,588.75. The trade was a 17.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Mika Yamamoto sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.48, for a total value of $85,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,692 shares in the company, valued at approximately $475,388.16. This represents a 15.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 9.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackLine Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BL opened at $29.88 on Monday. BlackLine has a 1 year low of $24.70 and a 1 year high of $59.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.18, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $28.73 and a 200 day moving average of $38.24. The stock has a market cap of $1.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 69.49 and a beta of 0.66.

BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.11. BlackLine had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 18.86%. The business had revenue of $183.16 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $181.00 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.49 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.7% compared to the same quarter last year. BlackLine has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.420-2.530 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.570-0.590 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BlackLine will post 1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About BlackLine

BlackLine, Inc is a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions designed to automate and modernize the finance and accounting function. The company’s flagship offering, the BlackLine Finance Controls and Automation Platform, enables organizations to streamline critical processes such as account reconciliations, journal entry management, intercompany accounting, and transaction matching. By delivering a centralized, real-time view of financial data, BlackLine helps companies improve operational efficiency, enhance compliance and strengthen internal controls.

Key products and services within the BlackLine platform include Account Reconciliation, Task Management, Transaction Matching, Journal Entry, and Intercompany Hub.