Block (NYSE:SQ) Shares Down 1%

Shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) were down 1% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $64.70 and last traded at $64.97. Approximately 1,306,358 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 8,716,614 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.65.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on SQ. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Block from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Block from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Block in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.20.

Block Trading Down 2.1 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $39.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 84.38, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 2.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.82. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.90.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.09. Block had a net margin of 3.47% and a return on equity of 3.77%. The firm had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.27 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Block

In other news, Director Roelof Botha acquired 434,405 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $57.55 per share, with a total value of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,000,007.75. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Roelof Botha purchased 434,405 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $57.55 per share, with a total value of $25,000,007.75. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,000,007.75. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total transaction of $30,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 92,366 shares in the company, valued at $5,715,608.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 11,784 shares of company stock valued at $772,623. 10.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SQ. Bares Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Block by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,487,251 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $347,089,000 after acquiring an additional 87,826 shares in the last quarter. Trivest Advisors Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Block in the 4th quarter valued at about $157,021,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Block by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,799,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,277,043 shares during the last quarter. &PARTNERS grew its holdings in Block by 8.3% during the first quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 8,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 659 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new position in Block during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,184,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

About Block

Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV® chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV® chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions.