Block (NYSE:XYZ) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Block (NYSE:XYZ) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Arete Research raised shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of Block in a report on Friday, February 27th. HSBC upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Block from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Truist Financial upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Block presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.91.

Block Stock Performance

XYZ stock opened at $56.07 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $33.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 2.65. Block has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $82.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.20 and a quick ratio of 2.20. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $59.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.11.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS 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 company had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.09, for a total value of $76,350.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,412 shares in the company, valued at $6,405,637.08. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,101 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total transaction of $70,441.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 271,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,393,858.72. This trade represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,352 shares of company stock valued at $1,165,720. 10.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Prudential Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at about $2,689,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth about $227,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Block during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,322,000. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,539,000. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $500,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Company 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.