Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) Insider Sells $539,404.56 in Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total value of $539,404.56. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 580,086 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,572,170.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Brian Grassadonia also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, July 2nd, Brian Grassadonia sold 1,889 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $121,594.93.

Block Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SQ traded up $1.50 during trading on Friday, hitting $65.34. The company had a trading volume of 5,613,201 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,718,805. The company has a market cap of $40.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 85.09, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 2.52. Block, Inc. has a 52 week low of $38.85 and a 52 week high of $87.52. The business’s 50-day moving average is $63.86 and its 200 day moving average is $69.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.27 billion. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.40 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Block during the 4th quarter valued at $528,996,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its stake in Block by 45.7% during the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,085,229 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $650,396,000 after purchasing an additional 3,163,975 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC raised its stake in Block by 70.0% during the 4th quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 6,606,269 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $510,995,000 after purchasing an additional 2,720,123 shares during the period. Trivest Advisors Ltd acquired a new stake in Block during the 4th quarter valued at $157,021,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Block by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,799,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,277,043 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on SQ. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Block in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Block from $92.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $88.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.59.

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.