Block’s (XYZ) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank Of Canada restated their outperform rating on shares of Block (NYSE:XYZ) in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has a $90.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on XYZ. Compass Point upgraded Block from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on Block from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Block from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $83.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $72.00 to $93.00 in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.79.

Block Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of XYZ opened at $59.80 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $36.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.47, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 2.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.20 and a quick ratio of 2.20. Block has a one year low of $44.27 and a one year high of $82.50. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.94.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.39. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Block will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.41, for a total transaction of $225,422.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 231,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,664,323.42. This represents a 1.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.09, for a total value of $76,350.57. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,405,637.08. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 20,352 shares of company stock valued at $1,165,720 over the last 90 days. 10.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 536,268 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,906,000 after acquiring an additional 6,176 shares during the period. Osbon Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Block in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. World Investment Advisors bought a new position in Block in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $230,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Block by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 28,945 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,884,000 after purchasing an additional 3,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EMC Capital Management acquired a new position in Block during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $77,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Block

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.