Block (NYSE:XYZ) Stock Rating Upgraded by Arete Research

Block (NYSE:XYZ) was upgraded by Arete Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $72.00 to $93.00 in a report on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Block from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Block from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.79.

Block Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $63.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20. The firm has a market cap of $38.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 2.65. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.94. Block has a fifty-two week low of $44.27 and a fifty-two week high of $82.50.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. Block had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 6.66%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.09, for a total value of $76,350.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 98,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,405,637.08. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 822 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total value of $52,591.56. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 242,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,529,097.64. This represents a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 16,797 shares of company stock worth $940,298 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter worth $3,730,489,000. Sands Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at $702,446,000. Geode Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at $634,721,000. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter worth $627,233,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $535,305,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by 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.