Brokerages Set Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) Target Price at $83.42

Shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirty-seven research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have assigned a hold recommendation, twenty-one have assigned a buy recommendation and three have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $83.4242.

Several brokerages recently commented on XYZ. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Block from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $86.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Block from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a research report on Monday. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Friday, November 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,608 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.40, for a total transaction of $221,531.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 123,198 shares in the company, valued at $7,564,357.20. This represents a 2.85% 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, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 35,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $2,811,600.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 535,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,871,680. This represents a 6.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 92,617 shares of company stock valued at $6,474,580 in the last ninety days. 10.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. S Bank Fund Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $92,000. Praxis Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $508,000. Nordea Investment Management AB acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,105,000. SilverOak Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $218,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA bought a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $94,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Block Stock Performance

NYSE XYZ opened at $64.62 on Friday. Block has a twelve month low of $44.27 and a twelve month high of $95.78. The company has a quick ratio of 2.18, a current ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The stock has a market cap of $39.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.03, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 2.65. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.24.

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

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.