Portside Wealth Group LLC Invests $379,000 in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Portside Wealth Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 5,575 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $379,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. acquired a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at $3,730,489,000. Geode Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth $634,721,000. ARK Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at about $210,016,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at about $204,223,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at about $111,109,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $61.83 on Thursday. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $99.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 2.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.18 and a quick ratio of 2.18. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.22.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.29. The firm 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%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on XYZ. BNP Paribas cut shares of Block from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $86.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Compass Point reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $65.00 price target (down from $80.00) on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Block from $71.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Citigroup raised Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Block from $77.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.36.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $60,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 102,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,184,640. This trade represents a 0.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 406 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total value of $30,356.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 126,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,481,284.62. This represents a 0.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 76,160 shares of company stock worth $5,899,556 over the last quarter. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.