Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Aug 11, 2026
Blackline, Inc. (BL)
A forensic read on Blackline, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
49.8
P / E (ttm)
7.4%
ROE
$1.7B
Market cap
7.2%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Blackline, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.6, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
2.5%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 2.5% in the latest fiscal year and rising from -3% — well below its ~10% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+3.5%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +11% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+3.5%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~3.5% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2022 has been diluted ~10%.
146% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $236M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 146% of free cash flow. More than free cash flow generated — and beyond operating cash too, so the extra is coming from debt or cash reserves, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $93M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 203%.
13% of rev
FY2025
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 13% of revenue and 57% of free cash flow in FY2025 — about $1.40 per diluted share. The cost of it is not in the cash flow — no cash left the business — it is in the count, and there it has run at about 4.2% a year and is falling.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$700.4M
Revenue Growth YoY+7.2%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+10.2%
Net Margin3.5%
Free Cash Flow$161.5M
Return on Equity7.4%
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Blackline, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?