Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Takes $52,000 Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 759 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. S Bank Fund Management Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at about $92,000. Praxis Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at about $508,000. Nordea Investment Management AB acquired a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at about $3,105,000. SilverOak Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at about $218,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA acquired a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at about $94,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,276 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.69, for a total value of $97,856.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 282,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,697,441.56. The trade was a 0.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 35,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $2,811,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 535,896 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,871,680. This trade represents a 6.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 123,041 shares of company stock valued at $9,355,075. Corporate insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

Block Stock Up 1.3%

XYZ opened at $79.56 on Friday. 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 cap 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.27 and a twelve month high of $99.26. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $76.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.25.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.32 billion. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on XYZ shares. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Block from $50.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler restated an “underweight” rating and set a $58.00 price target (up from $50.00) on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price target (up from $79.00) on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.42.

Block Profile

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.