Block (NYSE:XYZ) Earns “Buy” Rating from BTIG Research

Block (NYSE:XYZ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at BTIG Research in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $90.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. BTIG Research’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 37.43% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Block from $77.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Block in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Block from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Mizuho raised their target price on Block from $71.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Block from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $86.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.58.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE XYZ opened at $65.49 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.96. Block has a one year low of $44.27 and a one year high of $99.26. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $75.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $69.89. The company has a market capitalization of $39.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 2.73.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $6.11 billion during the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 12.99%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Block

In related news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 35,145 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $2,811,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 535,896 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,871,680. This trade represents a 6.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Dhananjay Prasanna sold 5,659 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.72, for a total value of $417,181.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 289,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,341,350.24. This trade represents a 1.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 119,041 shares of company stock valued at $9,052,531. 10.85% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Block by 23.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,626,485 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,887,366,000 after purchasing an additional 12,709,824 shares in the last quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $702,446,000. Geode Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at $634,721,000. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in Block in the second quarter valued at $627,233,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Block during the second quarter worth $535,305,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.