Insider Selling: Block (NYSE:XYZ) Insider Sells $78,508.50 in Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 1,050 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total transaction of $78,508.50. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 253,956 shares in the company, valued at $18,988,290.12. The trade was a 0.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Owen Britton Jennings also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, August 22nd, Owen Britton Jennings sold 8,501 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.87, for a total transaction of $627,968.87.
• On Thursday, August 21st, Owen Britton Jennings sold 10,424 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total transaction of $763,036.80.
• On Monday, July 21st, Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,993 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.60, for a total transaction of $313,849.80.

Block Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of XYZ opened at $81.11 on Thursday. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.27 and a 1-year high of $99.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $76.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.37, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 2.71.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.41. Block had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 7.85%. The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.32 billion. The company’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,730,489,000. Sands Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $702,446,000. Geode Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $634,721,000. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $627,233,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $535,305,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XYZ has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Macquarie boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $50.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered shares of Block from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $86.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $82.00 target price on shares of Block and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Twenty-four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.64.

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.