BLACKLINE, INC.

BLdata completeness 88%12 fiscal years on file

Data notes: no data for concept 'totalDebt'

The thesis, from the filings

BLACKLINE, INC. earns about 0% on equity, below its ~9% cost of capital, but has diluted owners by 13% over 5 years — no moat visible in the numbers. The estimate methods put fair value between $3.85 and $152.03 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$425.7M1$522.9M2$590M3$653.3M3$700.4M3
Net income−$115.2M4−$29.4M5$52.8M6$161.2M6$24.5M6
Operating cash flow$80.1M7$56M8$126.6M9$190.8M9$169.6M9
Capital expenditure$8.73M10$11M11$5.95M12$2.13M12$8.07M12
Free cash flow (derived)$71.4M7$45M8$120.7M9$188.7M9$161.5M9
Total debt
Cash & equivalents$539.7M13$201M14$271.1M15$885.9M15$390M15
Diluted shares58.4M59.5M72.0M73.5M65.9M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$50.41
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
$3.72
Free cash flow it threw off
$24.5
Debt you’d be carrying

10 shares is a claim on $50.41 of net worth that earned you $3.72 and generated $24.5 of cash last year.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on equity
0% avg · 5y
FY21 -35%FY22 -26%FY23 20%FY24 36%FY25 7%

It earned about 0% on equity against a ~9% cost of capital — below the cost of funding. The numbers show no moat.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
+13% shares · 5y

Share count is up 13% over 5 years — owners have been diluted. Worth asking what they got for it.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $3.85 and $152.03 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story; the Graham Number is a stricter floor, not a target.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$152.03
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$161.5M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$85.79
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth20.0%
  • fcfBase$161.5M
Earnings Power Value
$3.85
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$24.5M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
$6.65
assumptions (1)
  • grahamMultiplier2250.0%

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years20.0%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $85.79
The three cases
Bear0.0%$40.92
Base20.0%$85.79
Bull20.0%$85.79

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 20.0%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001666134-24-000003 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001666134-25-000003 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001628280-26-011915 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001666134-24-000003 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001666134-25-000003 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001628280-26-011915 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001666134-24-000003 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001666134-25-000003 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001628280-26-011915 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001666134-24-000003 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001666134-25-000003 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001628280-26-011915 (PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-31 · accession 0001666134-24-000003 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001666134-25-000003 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-31 · accession 0001628280-26-011915 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)