Insider Selling: Block (NYSE:XYZ) CAO Sells $54,165.00 in Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) CAO Ajmere Dale sold 750 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.22, for a total value of $54,165.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 103,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,480,403.16. This trade represents a 0.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ajmere Dale also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, October 2nd, Ajmere Dale sold 520 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total value of $38,880.40.
• On Monday, August 25th, Ajmere Dale sold 750 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $60,000.00.
• On Thursday, August 21st, Ajmere Dale sold 3,158 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.32, for a total transaction of $231,544.56.
• On Wednesday, July 23rd, Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $40,000.00.

Block Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE XYZ opened at $76.98 on Monday. Block, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.27 and a 52 week high of $99.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $76.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.93 billion, a PE ratio of 16.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 2.71.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.32 billion. Block had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 7.85%. Block’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on XYZ. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Block from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 8th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Block from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Twenty-four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.64.

Institutional Trading of Block

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Block during the 3rd quarter worth $555,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the third quarter worth about $316,000. Bank of New Hampshire purchased a new position in shares of Block during the third quarter worth about $86,000. Praxis Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Block by 62.4% in the 3rd quarter. Praxis Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,145 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $878,000 after acquiring an additional 4,665 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,560,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

About Block

Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV® chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV® chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions.