Piper Sandler Downgrades Block (NYSE:XYZ) to Neutral

Block (NYSE:XYZ) was downgraded by research analysts at Piper Sandler from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $51.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $85.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 9.51% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on XYZ. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on Block from $90.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Block in a research report on Saturday, February 15th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Block from $65.00 to $57.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $65.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.22.

Block Trading Down 20.4 %

Shares of Block stock opened at $46.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a current ratio of 2.07. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $56.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.24, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.83. Block has a 12 month low of $44.27 and a 12 month high of $99.26.

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

Insider Activity at Block

In other Block news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 1,263 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.19, for a total transaction of $70,967.97. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 181,904 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,221,185.76. This represents a 0.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 4,520 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.32, for a total value of $317,846.40. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 551,850 shares in the company, valued at $38,806,092. This trade represents a 0.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 19,324 shares of company stock worth $1,297,662 over the last three months. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Graypoint LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,445,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake 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 valued at $24,866,000 after acquiring an additional 232,989 shares in the last quarter. Private Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Block in the 4th quarter valued at about $15,727,000. Perpetual Ltd purchased a new position in Block in the 4th quarter worth approximately $10,779,000. Finally, Nepsis Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Block during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,769,000. 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.