California Public Employees Retirement System Boosts Stock Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 955,615 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 62,245 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Block were worth $69,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XYZ. Cromwell Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. City Holding Co. acquired a new position in shares of Block in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Traub Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Block during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

XYZ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Block from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Bank of America assumed coverage on Block in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $88.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup dropped their target price on Block from $105.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $72.00 target price on Block in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.79.

Block Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of XYZ opened at $59.80 on Tuesday. Block, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.27 and a fifty-two week high of $82.50. The company’s fifty day moving average is $60.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.08. The firm has a market cap of $36.34 billion, a PE ratio of 28.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 2.64. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,101 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total transaction of $70,441.98. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 271,864 shares in the company, valued at $17,393,858.72. This represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.09, for a total value of $76,350.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 98,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,405,637.08. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 20,352 shares of company stock worth $1,165,720 in the last three months. 10.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Block Profile

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.