Block (NYSE:XYZ) Lowered to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Block (NYSE:XYZ) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

XYZ has been the topic of a number of other reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Block from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a report on Monday, December 29th. Truist Financial upgraded Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $72.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $93.00 in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.91.

Block Trading Down 5.6%

XYZ stock opened at $56.07 on Friday. Block has a 52-week low of $44.27 and a 52-week high of $82.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a market cap of $33.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.70, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 2.65. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.04.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.39. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. Block’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Block will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Block news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.41, for a total transaction of $225,422.55. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 231,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,664,323.42. The trade was a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.09, for a total transaction of $76,350.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 98,412 shares in the company, valued at $6,405,637.08. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,352 shares of company stock worth $1,165,720. 10.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in XYZ. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Block by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 536,268 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,906,000 after purchasing an additional 6,176 shares during the last quarter. Osbon Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Block in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. World Investment Advisors acquired a new position in Block in the fourth quarter valued at about $230,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Block by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 28,945 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,884,000 after buying an additional 3,598 shares during the period. Finally, EMC Capital Management purchased a new position in Block during the fourth quarter worth about $77,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

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.