Baillie Gifford & Co. Has $842.33 Million Stock Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Baillie Gifford & Co. lowered its stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 3.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,655,303 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 357,341 shares during the quarter. Block makes up approximately 0.6% of Baillie Gifford & Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Baillie Gifford & Co. owned about 1.91% of Block worth $842,329,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd bought a new position in Block during the third quarter worth about $5,383,000. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth about $2,055,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $415,575,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,628,000. Finally, Korea Investment CORP bought a new stake in Block during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $13,937,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

XYZ has been the topic of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Block from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Citigroup upgraded Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Block from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $83.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.97.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,959 shares of the business’s 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 $611,482.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 272,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,760,051. The trade was a 3.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,085 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total value of $500,946.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 521,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,302,969.92. The trade was a 1.53% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,796 shares of company stock valued at $3,395,943. 10.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Block Trading Up 2.7%

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $66.78 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $64.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.37. 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 one year low of $44.27 and a one year high of $94.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.58 billion, a PE ratio of 13.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 2.66.

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

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.