Insider Selling: Square, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CFO Sells 1,138 Shares of Stock

Square, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,138 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.35, for a total transaction of $278,070.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 158,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,661,301.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Amrita Ahuja also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, December 23rd, Amrita Ahuja sold 4,994 shares of Square stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total value of $1,198,560.00.
• On Wednesday, December 2nd, Amrita Ahuja sold 1,854 shares of Square stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.20, for a total value of $371,170.80.
• On Monday, November 23rd, Amrita Ahuja sold 2,035 shares of Square stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.07, for a total value of $407,142.45.
• On Monday, November 9th, Amrita Ahuja sold 5,942 shares of Square stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.73, for a total value of $1,139,259.66.

Shares of Square stock opened at $230.92 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $221.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $171.00. Square, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.33 and a fifty-two week high of $246.49. The firm has a market cap of $104.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 372.45 and a beta of 2.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.70, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Square (NYSE:SQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The technology company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.18. Square had a net margin of 5.15% and a negative return on equity of 1.20%. The firm had revenue of $3.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.25 earnings per share. Square’s revenue for the quarter was up 139.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Square, Inc. will post -0.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

SQ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Square from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird started coverage on Square in a research report on Tuesday, December 22nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $245.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Square from $44.00 to $203.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 30th. Loop Capital began coverage on shares of Square in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $169.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of Square from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $185.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nineteen have given a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. The company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $170.76.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Square during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,036,000. IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Square by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 35,862 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,805,000 after buying an additional 5,970 shares in the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Square in the fourth quarter valued at $272,000. Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Square by 835.5% during the 4th quarter. Coastal Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 27,783 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,047,000 after acquiring an additional 24,813 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Redpoint Investment Management Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Square by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Redpoint Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 10,489 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,283,000 after acquiring an additional 802 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.29% of the company’s stock.

About Square

Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV® chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV® chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions.

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