Block (NYSE:XYZ) Upgraded by Citigroup to Strong-Buy Rating

Block (NYSE:XYZ) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Citigroup from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on XYZ. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Block in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Zacks Research upgraded Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Barclays assumed coverage on Block in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $100.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upped their target price on Block from $78.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.64.

Block Stock Performance

NYSE:XYZ opened at $81.46 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Block has a twelve month low of $48.21 and a twelve month high of $84.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.64, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 2.54.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.55. Block had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 3.30%.The firm had revenue of $6.06 billion during the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Block has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.860-0.860 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.850-3.850 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Block will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 30,919 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $2,318,925.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 500,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,561,200. This represents a 5.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 43,348 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $3,467,840.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 557,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,612,320. This represents a 7.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 357,219 shares of company stock valued at $27,286,681 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.37% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Block during the second quarter valued at $535,305,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Block in the 4th quarter worth about $484,387,000. Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $368,213,000. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Block by 41.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 16,023,441 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,042,966,000 after buying an additional 4,727,217 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Block by 528.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,309,296 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $199,153,000 after buying an additional 2,782,523 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Company 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.