Insider Selling: Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) CFO Sells 1,976 Shares of Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,976 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.19, for a total transaction of $111,031.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 233,878 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,141,604.82. This trade represents a 0.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Amrita Ahuja also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, February 21st, Amrita Ahuja sold 6,345 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.32, for a total transaction of $446,180.40.

Block Stock Down 7.0 %

XYZ opened at $50.17 on Friday. Block, Inc. has a 52 week low of $47.69 and a 52 week high of $99.26. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $69.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market cap of $31.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.03, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.77.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.11). Block had a return on equity of 5.80% and a net margin of 11.92%. The company had revenue of $6.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.23 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Block

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Block by 1.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,690,075 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $581,923,000 after acquiring an additional 133,002 shares during the period. Graypoint LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,445,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Block by 391.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 292,571 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $24,866,000 after purchasing an additional 232,989 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Block by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 253,787 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,037,000 after buying an additional 14,822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 227,325 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $15,260,000 after buying an additional 8,486 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Block in a report on Saturday, February 15th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Raymond James lowered their price objective on Block from $115.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Block from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $87.00 to $80.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of Block from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Block from $94.00 to $74.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.46.

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.