Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-four research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.67.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on SQ shares. Seaport Res Ptn raised Block from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective (down from $62.00) on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Block from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. BTIG Research raised Block from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Block from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total value of $42,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 68,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,790,374.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total value of $42,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 68,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,790,374.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $8,364,510.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 405,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,521,910.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 363,801 shares of company stock worth $27,284,175 in the last 90 days. 10.79% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in Block by 10.4% in the third quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,222,600 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $54,112,000 after acquiring an additional 115,132 shares during the period. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. grew its stake in Block by 1.5% in the third quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 261,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,565,000 after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the period. IFG Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Block in the fourth quarter valued at about $213,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in Block by 16.1% in the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,373,857 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $60,807,000 after acquiring an additional 190,400 shares during the period. Finally, CenterBook Partners LP acquired a new position in Block in the third quarter valued at about $359,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Block Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of SQ stock opened at $74.48 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.26. Block has a fifty-two week low of $38.85 and a fifty-two week high of $87.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 428.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 2.55. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.01. Block had a return on equity of 0.63% and a net margin of 0.04%. The business had revenue of $5.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.69 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Block will post 1.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.