Morgan Stanley Upgrades Block (NYSE:XYZ) to Overweight

Block (NYSE:XYZ) was upgraded by Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $67.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $65.00. Morgan Stanley’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 33.55% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also commented on XYZ. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Block from $101.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. 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 research note on Tuesday, March 18th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Block in a research report on Saturday, February 15th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Barclays cut their target price on Block from $112.00 to $97.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded Block from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.46.

Block Stock Down 7.0 %

Shares of XYZ stock opened at $50.17 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $69.53. Block has a 52 week low of $47.69 and a 52 week high of $99.26. The stock has a market cap of $31.08 billion, a PE ratio of 11.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a current ratio of 2.07.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,345 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.32, for a total transaction of $446,180.40. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 235,854 shares in the company, valued at $16,585,253.28. This trade represents a 2.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.48, for a total value of $27,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 81,999 shares in the company, valued at $4,467,305.52. This represents a 0.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,324 shares of company stock valued at $1,297,662 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Block by 4.4% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 23,320 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,565,000 after acquiring an additional 988 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Block by 3,570.3% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 39,235 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,634,000 after buying an additional 38,166 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP lifted its stake in Block by 152.9% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 80,125 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,379,000 after acquiring an additional 48,438 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Block by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 212,282 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $14,212,000 after acquiring an additional 12,410 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Block by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 53,878 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,615,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.