Silver Oak Securities Incorporated Makes New Investment in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Silver Oak Securities Incorporated purchased a new position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 15,513 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,121,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Block in the second quarter worth about $3,730,489,000. Sands Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $702,446,000. Geode Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at approximately $634,721,000. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $627,233,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $535,305,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on XYZ. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Block from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Block from $96.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Block from $58.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Block has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.12.

Block Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:XYZ opened at $65.15 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $71.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 2.65. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.27 and a 1-year high of $94.25. The company has a quick ratio of 2.18, a current ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.29. Block had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 5.54%. The company had revenue of $6.11 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Block’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Block news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,608 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.40, for a total transaction of $221,531.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 123,198 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,564,357.20. The trade was a 2.85% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,959 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.40, for a total value of $611,482.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 272,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,760,051. The trade was a 3.52% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 84,243 shares of company stock worth $5,844,695 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

About Block

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.