Wells Fargo & Company Upgrades Block (NYSE:XYZ) to Strong-Buy

Block (NYSE:XYZ) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on XYZ. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Block from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, August 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Block from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Bank of America boosted their price target on Block from $88.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $94.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Wednesday. Finally, BTIG Research set a $80.00 target price on Block and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.30.

Block Stock Performance

NYSE XYZ opened at $78.59 on Wednesday. Block has a fifty-two week low of $44.27 and a fifty-two week high of $99.26. The stock has a market cap of $47.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 2.71. The business has a fifty day moving average of $76.37 and a 200-day moving average of $68.04. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.41. Block had a return on equity of 7.85% and a net margin of 12.32%.The company had revenue of $6.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.32 billion. Block’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Block

In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $60,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 102,308 shares in the company, valued at $8,184,640. This represents a 0.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,276 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.69, for a total transaction of $97,856.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 282,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,697,441.56. This trade represents a 0.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 123,041 shares of company stock valued at $9,355,075 over the last three months. Insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. S Bank Fund Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at $92,000. Praxis Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at $508,000. Nordea Investment Management AB acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at $3,105,000. SilverOak Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at about $218,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at about $94,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

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.