SG Americas Securities LLC Acquires Shares of 7,981 Block, Inc. $XYZ

SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 7,981 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $542,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. SouthState Corp purchased a new stake in Block in the second quarter worth $29,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 2,724 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.40, for a total transaction of $167,253.60. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 99,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,114,519. This represents a 2.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Arnaud Weber sold 7,095 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.40, for a total value of $435,633.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 259,136 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,910,950.40. The trade was a 2.66% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 108,958 shares of company stock worth $7,712,257. 10.85% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Block Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $65.11 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.18 and a quick ratio of 2.18. The company has a market cap of $39.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.13, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 2.73. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $72.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.72. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $6.11 billion during the quarter. Block had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 5.54%. The business’s revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on XYZ. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Block from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $86.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Block from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Finally, BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.42.

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.