BlackLine cut to Underweight on growth headwinds at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler downgraded BlackLine to Underweight from Neutral with a price target of $60, up from $53. The analyst says headwinds to the company’s growth could remain challenging into 2024. Piper is Underweight on BlackLine until its “growth headwinds begin to abate.” The firm, however, enters 2024 with a higher degree of optimism for application software based on stabilizing demand fundamentals after two years of moderation, a declining interest rate backdrop, and new secular tailwinds for cloud and data driven by a generational shift to artificial intelligence.