Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Reduces Stock Position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise cut its stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ – Get Rating) by 3.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,729 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 314 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Block were worth $612,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Block by 148.7% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 11,359,972 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $713,861,000 after purchasing an additional 6,791,842 shares in the last quarter. Tiger Global Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Block by 299.9% during the 3rd quarter. Tiger Global Management LLC now owns 3,799,271 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $208,922,000 after purchasing an additional 2,849,243 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Block by 59.7% during the 3rd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,098,462 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $225,374,000 after purchasing an additional 1,531,462 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Block by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,781,540 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,857,647,000 after purchasing an additional 1,236,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Block by 24.1% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,960,096 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $162,777,000 after purchasing an additional 574,630 shares in the last quarter. 59.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Block from $108.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Wedbush raised shares of Block from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $114.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 24th. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Block from $87.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Block from $100.00 to $85.00 in a research note on Monday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Block from $101.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty-two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Block presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.03.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Alyssa Henry sold 30,769 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.30, for a total value of $2,378,443.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 418,667 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,362,959.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Alyssa Henry sold 30,769 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.30, for a total transaction of $2,378,443.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 418,667 shares in the company, valued at $32,362,959.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 4,046 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total transaction of $271,082.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 241,460 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,177,820. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 293,716 shares of company stock worth $19,781,854. 11.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Block Stock Performance

NYSE:SQ opened at $59.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.83. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $63.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.27. The stock has a market cap of $35.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -98.83 and a beta of 2.34. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $51.34 and a 1-year high of $93.19.

Block (NYSE:SQ – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 4th. The technology company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.17. The business had revenue of $4.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.58 billion. Block had a negative net margin of 1.92% and a negative return on equity of 1.22%. On average, research analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post -0.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Block Company Profile

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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.