Block (NYSE:XYZ) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results

Block (NYSE:XYZ) posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The technology company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.11), Zacks reports. The business had revenue of $6.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.23 billion. Block had a return on equity of 5.80% and a net margin of 11.92%.

Block Stock Down 17.7 %

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $68.34 on Friday. Block has a one year low of $55.00 and a one year high of $99.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.36 billion, a PE ratio of 15.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.52.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on XYZ shares. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Block from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Block from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $94.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Block from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of Block from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.23.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,865 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $272,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 85,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,097,325. This represents a 3.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,502 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.52, for a total transaction of $129,953.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 242,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,955,057.48. This represents a 0.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 9,247 shares of company stock valued at $832,865. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

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.