Legal & General Group Plc Grows Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

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

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. Cromwell Holdings LLC purchased a new stake in Block during the third quarter worth $27,000. City Holding Co. acquired a new position in shares of Block in the third quarter worth about $27,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter worth about $26,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Traub Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Arete Research raised Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Block from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Block from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Block presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.79.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,101 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total value of $70,441.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 271,864 shares in the company, valued at $17,393,858.72. This represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.09, for a total transaction of $76,350.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,405,637.08. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 20,352 shares of company stock valued at $1,165,720 over the last ninety days. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $59.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.20 and a quick ratio of 2.20. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $82.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.35 billion, a PE ratio of 28.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 2.65. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $61.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.53.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.39. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.