Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Invests $204.22 Million in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,006,375 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,223,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth $210,016,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth $36,353,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth $14,850,000. Otter Creek Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth $4,404,000. Finally, Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth $4,062,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on XYZ. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Block from $71.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price (up previously from $80.00) on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 8th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Block from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 target price (up previously from $79.00) on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Block from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Block currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.42.

Block Stock Up 1.3%

XYZ opened at $79.56 on Friday. Block, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.27 and a fifty-two week high of $99.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 1.96. The company has a fifty day moving average of $76.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.04, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 2.71.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released 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. Block had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 7.85%. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.32 billion. The company’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 406 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total transaction of $30,356.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 126,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,481,284.62. The trade was a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,276 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.69, for a total transaction of $97,856.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 282,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,697,441.56. This represents a 0.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 123,041 shares of company stock valued at $9,355,075. Corporate insiders own 10.85% 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.