Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Increases Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,667,091 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 31,456 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 0.27% of Block worth $120,481,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. acquired a new position in Block in the second quarter valued at $3,730,489,000. Sands Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $702,446,000. Geode Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $634,721,000. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter worth about $627,233,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter worth about $535,305,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Block Trading Down 5.0%

XYZ opened at $62.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.07 billion, a PE ratio of 12.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 2.66. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $64.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $71.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.18 and a quick ratio of 2.18. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.27 and a 12-month high of $94.25.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.29. Block had a return on equity of 5.54% and a net margin of 12.99%.The firm had revenue of $6.11 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on XYZ shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Block from $96.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Block in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Zacks Research lowered Block from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.97.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 822 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total transaction of $52,591.56. Following the sale, the insider owned 242,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,529,097.64. The trade was a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.09, for a total value of $76,350.57. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,412 shares in the company, valued at $6,405,637.08. The trade was a 1.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 54,796 shares of company stock worth $3,395,943. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Block 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.