BTIG Research Reiterates Buy Rating for Block (NYSE:XYZ)

Block (NYSE:XYZ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at BTIG Research in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $90.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. BTIG Research’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 25.32% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on XYZ. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Block from $105.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Block from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, Arete Research upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.67.

Block Price Performance

Block stock opened at $71.82 on Wednesday. Block has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $82.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $60.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.64. The company has a market cap of $43.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 2.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.39. Block had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 6.66%. The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 earnings per share. Block’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Block will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 10,349 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $517,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 503,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,189,200. This represents a 2.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.41, for a total transaction of $225,422.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 231,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,664,323.42. This trade represents a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 15,806 shares of company stock valued at $857,468 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Block by 23.1% in 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 during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Block by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 16,023,441 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,042,966,000 after purchasing an additional 4,727,217 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Block by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,406,899 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $934,121,000 after purchasing an additional 67,560 shares during the period. Sands Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Block by 12.2% in the third quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 11,603,057 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $838,553,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,317 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at $535,305,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Block Company Profile

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.