Rakuten Securities Inc. Makes New Investment in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 10,268 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $794,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in SQ. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 1.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,915,658 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,545,367,000 after acquiring an additional 585,801 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Block by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 11,887,628 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $919,508,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,514 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 10,377,973 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $802,736,000 after acquiring an additional 75,161 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its stake in shares of Block by 3,525.7% during the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,935,002 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $459,072,000 after acquiring an additional 5,771,310 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Block by 3.5% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,685,675 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $389,576,000 after acquiring an additional 189,718 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on SQ shares. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $99.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $88.00 price objective (up previously from $86.00) on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.41.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 656 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total transaction of $42,180.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,823 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,425,318.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 2,581 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total transaction of $165,958.30. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 201,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,972,782.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 656 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total transaction of $42,180.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,823 shares in the company, valued at $4,425,318.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 363,801 shares of company stock valued at $27,284,175. Company insiders own 10.79% of the company’s stock.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SQ traded down $0.36 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $73.14. The stock had a trading volume of 5,643,623 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,632,022. The company has a 50 day moving average of $76.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.75. The firm has a market cap of $45.03 billion, a PE ratio of 432.35, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 2.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. Block, Inc. has a twelve month low of $38.85 and a twelve month high of $87.52.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.69 billion. Block had a return on equity of 0.63% and a net margin of 0.04%. Research analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.