Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators Takes Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators purchased a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 480 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of XYZ. S Bank Fund Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $92,000. Praxis Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $508,000. Nordea Investment Management AB purchased a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,105,000. SilverOak Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $218,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA purchased a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $94,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Block

In related news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 10,424 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total value 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. This represents a 3.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,609 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total transaction of $264,178.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 127,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,311,918.40. This represents a 2.76% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 123,041 shares of company stock worth $9,355,075 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

XYZ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $58.00 price target (up from $50.00) on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 8th. BNP Paribas Exane downgraded Block from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $86.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Citigroup raised Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Macquarie boosted their price target on Block from $50.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.42.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE XYZ opened at $80.20 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $76.63 and a 200 day moving average of $68.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 2.71. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.27 and a 12-month high of $99.26.

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