Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC Acquires New Shares in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC bought a new position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,106 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $279,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $634,721,000. ARK Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at $210,016,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $204,223,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $111,109,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. bought a new stake in Block during the 2nd quarter worth $62,389,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Block Trading Up 7.3%

NYSE:XYZ opened at $61.83 on Thursday. Block, Inc. has a 52 week low of $44.27 and a 52 week high of $99.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a current ratio of 2.18. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $73.63 and its 200-day moving average is $70.22. The firm has a market cap of $37.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 2.73.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $6.11 billion for the quarter. Block had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 7.41%. Block’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,581 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $493,575.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 285,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,416,325. The trade was a 2.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 8,501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.87, for a total value of $627,968.87. Following the transaction, the insider owned 255,006 shares in the company, valued at $18,837,293.22. The trade was a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 76,160 shares of company stock valued at $5,899,556 in the last ninety days. 10.85% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on XYZ shares. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Block from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Block from $94.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Compass Point reissued a “sell” rating and set a $65.00 target price (down from $80.00) on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Block from $77.00 to $71.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.36.

Block Profile

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.