VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Purchases Shares of 147,900 Block, Inc. $XYZ

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 147,900 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,240,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. Raiffeisen Bank International AG increased its holdings in Block by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG now owns 44,901 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,503,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Block by 33.9% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 707 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 179 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Block by 3.3% during the second quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,081 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $462,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the period. Carson Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Block by 2.6% in the first quarter. Carson Advisory Inc. now owns 8,035 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $484,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA raised its holdings in shares of Block by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych PZU SA now owns 800 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of XYZ opened at $80.03 on Wednesday. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $48.21 and a 1 year high of $86.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.08 billion, a PE ratio of 142.90, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 2.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a current ratio of 2.21. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.64.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.54. Block had a net margin of 1.43% and a return on equity of 8.10%. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.62 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Block has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.020-4.020 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.020-1.020 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Block from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Block from $101.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Block from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Block from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Block to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,511 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.43, for a total transaction of $783,991.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 423,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,889,486.66. This represents a 2.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Anthony Eisen sold 41,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.85, for a total value of $3,519,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,566,672 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,498,791.20. The trade was a 2.55% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 372,006 shares of company stock worth $29,886,161. Corporate insiders own 11.37% of the company’s stock.

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.