Block (NYSE:XYZ) Given Buy Rating at BTIG Research

Block (NYSE:XYZ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at BTIG Research in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $90.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. BTIG Research’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 47.38% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Block from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Block from $74.00 to $67.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $85.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.36.

Block Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of NYSE:XYZ traded down $1.23 during trading on Friday, hitting $61.07. The company had a trading volume of 4,285,332 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,974,592. The stock has a market cap of $37.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 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 has a fifty day simple moving average of $74.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.03. Block has a one year low of $44.27 and a one year high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.29. Block had a return on equity of 7.41% and a net margin of 12.99%.The company had revenue of $6.11 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Block

In other Block news, insider Dhananjay Prasanna sold 5,659 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.72, for a total transaction of $417,181.48. Following the sale, the insider owned 289,492 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,341,350.24. This trade represents a 1.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,609 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total value of $264,178.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 127,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,311,918.40. The trade was a 2.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 115,441 shares of company stock valued at $8,778,247 over the last quarter. 10.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Block by 23.1% during 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 buying an additional 12,709,824 shares during the last quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Block by 12.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,262,317 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Block by 192.7% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,296,224 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $816,378,000 after acquiring an additional 7,436,380 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Block in the second quarter worth $634,721,000. Finally, Dragoneer Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter worth $627,233,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Company 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.