Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Takes Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 8,670 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $627,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XYZ. Traub Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. City Holding Co. bought a new stake in shares of Block during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

XYZ has been the subject of a number of research reports. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Block from $88.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Arete Research upgraded Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. BNP Paribas Exane raised Block from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $83.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Block from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Block from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.79.

Block Trading Down 7.4%

NYSE:XYZ opened at $59.83 on Friday. Block, Inc. has a one year low of $44.27 and a one 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.49, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 2.65.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.39. Block had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 6.66%. The business had revenue of $6.25 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. Block’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,405,637.08. This represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 10,349 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total value of $517,450.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 503,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,189,200. The trade was a 2.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,352 shares of company stock worth $1,165,720. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.