Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stock Position in BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BlackLine, Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) by 13.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 290,775 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 34,919 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.47% of BlackLine worth $16,033,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackLine during the 1st quarter valued at $36,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of BlackLine in the 2nd quarter worth about $32,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in BlackLine during the 2nd quarter valued at about $64,000. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in BlackLine by 29.4% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,495 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in BlackLine by 13.0% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,306 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $112,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of BlackLine from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of BlackLine from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. BTIG Research lowered their price target on shares of BlackLine from $71.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of BlackLine from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered 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 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. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackLine presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackLine news, insider Karole Morgan-Prager sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $550,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 113,865 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,262,575. This trade represents a 8.07 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Mark Partin sold 85,308 shares of BlackLine stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.84, for a total value of $4,678,290.72. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 226,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,440,124.96. This represents a 27.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 135,495 shares of company stock valued at $7,560,534 over the last three months. 9.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackLine Trading Down 2.1 %

NASDAQ BL opened at $59.31 on Friday. BlackLine, Inc. has a 12 month low of $43.37 and a 12 month high of $69.31. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $55.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.75. The stock has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a PE ratio of 60.52, a PEG ratio of 15.28 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.69, a quick ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42.

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.