Center for Financial Planning Inc. Buys New Stake in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Center for Financial Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,632 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. ARK Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at $210,016,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. purchased a new position in Block during the second quarter worth $204,223,000. Bessemer Group Inc. purchased a new position in Block during the second quarter worth $62,389,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in Block during the second quarter worth $36,353,000. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Block during the second quarter worth $21,352,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

XYZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BTIG Research set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Block and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Block from $71.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $58.00 price objective (up from $50.00) on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 8th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.42.

Block Stock Performance

XYZ stock opened at $75.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.96 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $76.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.17. The company has a market capitalization of $46.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.25, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 2.71. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.27 and a 1-year high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.32 billion. Block had a return on equity of 7.85% and a net margin of 12.32%.Block’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In related news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 406 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total value of $30,356.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 126,806 shares in the company, valued at $9,481,284.62. The trade was a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $60,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 102,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,184,640. This represents a 0.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 119,441 shares of company stock valued at $9,085,327 over the last three months. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Block

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.