Block (NYSE:XYZ) Upgraded by Arete Research to Strong-Buy Rating

Block (NYSE:XYZ) was upgraded by research analysts at Arete Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on XYZ. HSBC raised shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Block in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Block from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Friday, February 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.79.

Block Stock Performance

NYSE:XYZ opened at $63.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.20 and a quick ratio of 2.20. The company has a market cap of $38.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.01, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 2.65. Block has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $82.50. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.22 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.94.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 822 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total value of $52,591.56. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 242,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,529,097.64. This represents a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,101 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total value of $70,441.98. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 271,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,393,858.72. This represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 16,797 shares of company stock worth $940,298. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

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

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.