Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC Has $430,000 Position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,556 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 248 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Block were worth $430,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of SQ. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Block by 3,525.7% during the 4th quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,935,002 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $459,072,000 after acquiring an additional 5,771,310 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new stake in Block in the third quarter worth $172,001,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its holdings in Block by 72.8% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 2,683,346 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $118,765,000 after purchasing an additional 1,130,925 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Block by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 11,887,628 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $919,508,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Block by 396.4% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,228,886 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,390,000 after purchasing an additional 981,320 shares in the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on SQ shares. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Block from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Block from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Block from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Wolfe Research upped their price objective on shares of Block from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.67.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 127,800 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.45, for a total transaction of $8,364,510.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 405,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,521,910.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 127,800 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.45, for a total transaction of $8,364,510.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 405,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,521,910.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 4,170 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.84, for a total transaction of $328,762.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,192 shares in the company, valued at $15,231,257.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 363,801 shares of company stock valued at $27,284,175 over the last three months. 10.79% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of Block stock opened at $75.21 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. The firm has a market cap of $46.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 421.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 2.55. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $77.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.81. Block, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $38.85 and a fifty-two week high of $87.52.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.01. Block had a net margin of 0.04% and a return on equity of 0.63%. The firm had revenue of $5.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.69 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Block Profile

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.