The Goldman Sachs Group Cuts Block (NYSE:XYZ) Price Target to $94.00

Block (NYSE:XYZ) had its target price trimmed by The Goldman Sachs Group from $109.00 to $94.00 in a research note published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Block from $100.00 to $87.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Block from $90.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $83.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Macquarie upped their target price on shares of Block from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Block from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.23.

Block Stock Performance

XYZ opened at $68.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a current ratio of 2.07. Block has a 1-year low of $55.00 and a 1-year high of $99.26. The firm has a market cap of $42.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.52.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.11). Block had a return on equity of 5.24% and a net margin of 4.73%. The business had revenue of $6.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.23 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Block will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,502 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.52, for a total value of $129,953.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 242,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,955,057.48. This represents a 0.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 2,836 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.38, for a total transaction of $253,481.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 195,449 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,469,231.62. The trade was a 1.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,247 shares of company stock worth $832,865 over the last quarter. 10.49% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of XYZ. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the third quarter worth about $114,121,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Block by 770.0% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,738,708 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $116,719,000 after purchasing an additional 1,538,849 shares in the last quarter. Woodson Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Block in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,255,000. Azora Capital LP raised its stake in Block by 358.4% in the third quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 503,402 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $33,793,000 after purchasing an additional 393,593 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Graypoint LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,445,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.