Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. Purchases Shares of 14,227 Block, Inc. $XYZ

Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. purchased a new position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 14,227 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $926,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. Nemes Rush Group LLC purchased a new position in Block during the second quarter worth about $26,000. City Holding Co. bought a new position in Block in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XYZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Block in a report on Friday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $72.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $72.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Block from $105.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Block news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the insider 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. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,405,637.08. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 20,352 shares of company stock valued at $1,165,720 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

Block Stock Performance

NYSE XYZ opened at $61.16 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.44. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.27 and a 12-month high of $82.50. The firm has a market cap of $37.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.12, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 2.65. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

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.