Legal & General Group Plc Takes $6.94 Million Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 182,210 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,939,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Block in the second quarter valued at about $1,866,000. Brown Advisory Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter worth about $516,000. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter worth about $385,000. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $53,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,861,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Stock Up 6.0%

Shares of XYZ stock opened at $82.52 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $80.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.76. Block, Inc. has a twelve month low of $48.21 and a twelve month high of $86.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a current ratio of 2.21. The company has a market capitalization of $49.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 147.35, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 2.52.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.54. Block had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 1.43%.The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.62 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Block has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.020-4.020 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.020-1.020 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 2.72 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on XYZ shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. William Blair cut shares of Block to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Block from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Block to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Block from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.42.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 1,317 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.48, for a total value of $107,309.16. Following the transaction, the insider owned 460,128 shares in the company, valued at $37,491,229.44. This trade represents a 0.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,173 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.42, for a total transaction of $673,618.66. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 513,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,362,314.02. This represents a 1.57% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 372,006 shares of company stock valued at $29,736,461 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 11.37% of the company’s stock.

Block Company Profile

Block (NYSE:XYZ) is a financial technology company that builds products and services to facilitate electronic payments, commerce, and consumer finance. Its principal business lines include a seller-focused ecosystem that provides point-of-sale hardware and software, payment processing, invoicing, payroll and lending services, and a consumer-facing platform that offers peer-to-peer payments, banking-like features, and investing. Block’s portfolio also encompasses music streaming and buy-now-pay-later capabilities through businesses acquired to broaden its reach beyond core payments.

The company was founded as Square in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and later rebranded to Block to reflect a diversified set of businesses across payments, consumer finance, and emerging technologies.