Block (NYSE:XYZ) Rating Lowered to Hold at Zacks Research

Block (NYSE:XYZGet Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Block from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Block from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price target on shares of Block from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.84.

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Block Stock Performance

NYSE XYZ opened at $81.22 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.50. Block has a 12-month low of $48.21 and a 12-month high of $84.08. The firm has a market cap of $48.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.45, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 2.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZGet Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.55. The company had revenue of $6.06 billion during the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 3.30%.The company’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. Block has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.860-0.860 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.850-3.850 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Block will post 2.48 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 8,093 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $606,975.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 463,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,743,450. This trade represents a 1.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Anthony Mathew Eisen sold 135,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.81, for a total transaction of $10,426,957.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,032,990 shares in the company, valued at $156,153,961.90. This represents a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders sold 347,300 shares of company stock valued at $26,657,536. Corporate insiders own 11.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. bought a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $535,305,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Block during the 4th quarter valued at about $484,387,000. Viking Global Investors LP bought a new stake in Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $368,213,000. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Block by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 16,023,441 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,042,966,000 after buying an additional 4,727,217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Block by 528.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,309,296 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $199,153,000 after buying an additional 2,782,523 shares in the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Block Company Profile

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Block (NYSE:XYZ) is a financial technology company that builds products and services to facilitate electronic payments, commerce, and consumer finance. Its principal business lines include a seller-focused ecosystem that provides point-of-sale hardware and software, payment processing, invoicing, payroll and lending services, and a consumer-facing platform that offers peer-to-peer payments, banking-like features, and investing. Block’s portfolio also encompasses music streaming and buy-now-pay-later capabilities through businesses acquired to broaden its reach beyond core payments.

The company was founded as Square in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and later rebranded to Block to reflect a diversified set of businesses across payments, consumer finance, and emerging technologies.

Further Reading

Analyst Recommendations for Block (NYSE:XYZ)

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