Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 514,692 Shares of Block, Inc. $XYZ

Vanguard Group Inc. lowered its stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 67,111,793 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 514,692 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of Block worth $4,368,307,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of XYZ. Baird Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter worth $1,866,000. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in Block in the second quarter valued at about $516,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in Block in the second quarter valued at about $385,000. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new position in Block in the second quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in Block in the second quarter valued at about $1,861,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 10,349 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $517,450.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 503,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,189,200. The trade was a 2.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.41, for a total value of $225,422.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 231,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,664,323.42. This 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 49,725 shares of company stock valued at $3,401,393 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of XYZ stock opened at $71.32 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $61.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.40. Block, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.27 and a 12 month high of $82.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.96, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 2.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion for the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XYZ has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on Block from $78.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Block from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Block from $105.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Block currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.78.

About Block

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.