City State Bank Acquires Shares of 925 Block, Inc. $XYZ

City State Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 925 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D bought a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $12,826,000. CNB Bank bought a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $51,000. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $52,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter worth $207,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter worth $204,223,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their target price on Block from $75.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $97.00 target price (up from $63.00) on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Block from $71.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Block from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Block from $76.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.42.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 10,424 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total transaction of $763,036.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 263,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,288,712.40. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,609 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total value of $264,178.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 127,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,311,918.40. The trade was a 2.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 123,041 shares of company stock worth $9,355,075. 10.85% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Block Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of Block stock opened at $79.56 on Friday. Block, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.27 and a 52-week high of $99.26. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $76.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 2.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 1.96.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.41. Block had a return on equity of 7.85% and a net margin of 12.32%.The business had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.32 billion. Block’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Block Company Profile

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.