Truist Financial Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Block (NYSE:XYZ) Stock

Block (NYSE:XYZ) had its target price lifted by Truist Financial from $77.00 to $81.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Truist Financial’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 12.97% from the stock’s current price.

XYZ has been the topic of a number of other reports. Zacks Research raised Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, March 27th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen upped their target price on Block from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Loop Capital started coverage on Block in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 target price on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.78.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $71.70 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $42.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.14, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 2.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current 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 $61.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.59.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $6.25 billion for the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.71 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Block will post 2.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $225,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 268,169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,112,675. The trade was a 1.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 30,919 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $2,318,925.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 500,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,561,200. This trade represents a 5.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 49,725 shares of company stock valued at $3,401,393 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Block by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,626,485 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,887,366,000 after acquiring an additional 12,709,824 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Block by 41.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 16,023,441 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,042,966,000 after acquiring an additional 4,727,217 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Block by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,406,899 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $934,121,000 after acquiring an additional 67,560 shares during the last quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Block by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 11,603,057 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $838,553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,262,317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $535,305,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.