CENTRAL TRUST Co Acquires Shares of 3,539 Block, Inc. $XYZ

CENTRAL TRUST Co bought a new position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,539 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. SouthState Corp purchased a new stake in Block in the second quarter worth $29,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Trading Down 5.4%

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $62.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.18 and a quick ratio of 2.18. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $99.26. The company has a market cap of $37.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.55, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 2.73. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $74.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.03.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $6.11 billion during the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 7.41% and a net margin of 12.99%.Block’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,966 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total value of $729,511.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 298,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,845,149.20. The trade was a 3.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 10,424 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total value of $763,036.80. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 263,507 shares in the company, valued at $19,288,712.40. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 115,441 shares of company stock valued at $8,778,247 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XYZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Block from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Block from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $94.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Block from $71.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $82.00 target price on Block and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Block currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.36.

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.