Financial software provider BlackLine (NASDAQ: BL) recently announced its quarterly results that surpassed market expectations. The company continues to expand its relationship with SAP to expand its market presence.

BlackLine’s Financials

BlackLine’s first-quarter revenues grew 20% over the year to $98.9 million, ahead of the market’s estimate of $96.1 million. Net loss was $39 million, compared with a net loss of $12.8 million a year ago. Non-GAAP net income was $7.1 million, or $0.11 per share, compared with the market’s estimates of $0.05 per share for the quarter.

Among key metrics, it added 49 net new customers in the quarter to end with 3,482 customers at the end of the March quarter. It expanded its user base to 297,030 and reported a dollar-based net revenue retention rate of 106%.

For the second quarter, BlackLine expects revenues of $100.5-$101.5 million with an EPS of $0.07-$0.09. It expects to end the year with revenues of $415-$420 million with an EPS of $0.43-$0.46. The market was looking for revenues of $98.39 million for the quarter with an EPS of $0.08 and revenues of $412.39 million for the year with an EPS of $0.39.

BlackLine’s SAP Partnership

During the quarter, BlackLine extended its platform with the release of its new product AR Intelligence. The product helps customers with leveraging real-time data with powerful analytics for an automated accounts receivable solution. BlackLine has been working on adding more AR automation offerings to its customers, and AR Intelligence is one of those solutions.

Recently, BlackLine expanded its global partner program to scale the business, drive sustained growth and customer success, and further penetrate the $28B opportunities in the financial close and accounts receivable automation markets. It expanded its partner program with SAP to enable delivery of its cloud-based solutions as solution extensions for SAP software. It entered into alliances with consulting and advisory organizations to drive digital transformation in the enterprise segment and also extended regional consulting alliances within specific geographies.

Meanwhile, BlackLine remains focused on strengthening its integration and relationship with SAP. SAP recently awarded BlackLine the 2021 SAP Pinnacle Award for Partner of the Year in the Solution Extensions category, recognizing BlackLine for its world-class solution extensions. BlackLine’s cloud-based solutions are offered by SAP as complementary functionality within SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Its offerings help businesses use SAP solutions to automate key financial processes, enhance internal controls, free up resources to support digital transformation, and accelerate SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementations.

As I have said before, BlackLine’s continued expansion with SAP could make it an attractive acquisition target for SAP. BlackLine’s deep integrations and a fruitful partnership with SAP will allow SAP to provide its customers with access to a cloud-based financial reconciliation service that can complement its financial ERP offering.  

BlackLine’s stock is trading at $112.18 with a market capitalization of $6.5 billion. It had touched a 52-week high of $154.61 in February. The stock has recovered from the 52-week low of $71.20 that it had fallen to in August last year.