Block (NYSE:SQ) Stock Price Up 0.6%

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)’s stock price was up 0.6% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $66.58 and last traded at $65.73. Approximately 1,355,007 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 8,673,938 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.36.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on SQ. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Block from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $92.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.59.

Block Stock Up 0.3 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $63.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.89. The firm has a market cap of $40.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 2.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.82.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last issued its 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. Block had a net margin of 3.47% and a return on equity of 3.77%. The company had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total transaction of $539,404.56. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 580,086 shares in the company, valued at $37,572,170.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Block news, Director Roelof Botha bought 434,405 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $57.55 per share, with a total value of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 434,405 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,007.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total value of $539,404.56. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 580,086 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,572,170.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 28,179 shares of company stock valued at $1,833,962 in the last 90 days. 10.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Block

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SQ. Bares Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Block by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,487,251 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $347,089,000 after acquiring an additional 87,826 shares in the last quarter. Trivest Advisors Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Block in the fourth quarter worth $157,021,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Block by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,799,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,277,043 shares during the last quarter. &PARTNERS boosted its holdings in Block by 8.3% during the first quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 8,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 659 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in Block in the fourth quarter valued at $1,184,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.