Legal & General Group Plc Buys 359,371 Shares of Block, Inc. $XYZ

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 12.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,144,760 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 359,371 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.52% of Block worth $227,272,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of XYZ. Howard Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Block by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,439 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $321,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its position in shares of Block by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 853 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Block by 0.8% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 21,183 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,561,000 after buying an additional 167 shares during the period. Vista Investment Partners II LLC increased its stake in shares of Block by 3.6% during the third quarter. Vista Investment Partners II LLC now owns 5,334 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $385,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC raised its holdings in shares of Block by 59.7% in the third quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 495 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on XYZ shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Block from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Block to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. HSBC upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Block has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.79.

Insider Activity

In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of Block 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,405,637.08. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 231,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,664,323.42. The trade was a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 20,352 shares of company stock valued at $1,165,720 in the last ninety days. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Block Stock Performance

XYZ stock opened at $59.83 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $36.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.49, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 2.65. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.53. Block, Inc. has a one year low of $44.27 and a one year high of $82.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20.

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

Block 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.