BlackLine Earnings: What To Look For From BL

Accounting automation software maker Blackline (NASDAQ:BL) will be reporting earnings tomorrow after market close. Here’s what you need to know.

BlackLine beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 1.4% last quarter, reporting revenues of $160.5 million, up 11% year on year. It was a strong quarter for the company, with accelerating customer growth and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates. It added 24 customers to reach a total of 4,435.

Is BlackLine a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting BlackLine’s revenue to grow 8.2% year on year to $163.1 million, slowing from the 12.2% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.52 per share.

The majority of analysts covering the company have reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. BlackLine has a history of exceeding Wall Street’s expectations, beating revenue estimates every single time over the past two years by 0.7% on average.

Looking at BlackLine’s peers in the finance and HR software segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Paylocity delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 14.3%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1.9%, and Paycom reported revenues up 11.2%, topping estimates by 1.1%. Paylocity traded up 3.3% following the results while Paycom was also up 21.3%.

Read our full analysis of Paylocity’s results here and Paycom’s results here.

There has been positive sentiment among investors in the finance and HR software segment, with share prices up 7% on average over the last month. BlackLine’s stock price was unchanged during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $57.70 (compared to the current share price of $54.12).

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