Royal Bank Of Canada Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Block (NYSE:XYZ)

Block (NYSE:XYZ)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $95.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. Royal Bank Of Canada‘s price target suggests a potential upside of 20.42% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on XYZ. Weiss Ratings raised Block from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $97.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Argus increased their target price on Block from $86.00 to $103.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Zacks Research lowered Block from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Wolfe Research increased their price target on Block from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.55.

Block Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:XYZ traded up $0.79 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $78.89. The stock had a trading volume of 666,318 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,149,641. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a current ratio of 2.21. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $78.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $75.26. The stock has a market cap of $47.40 billion, a PE ratio of 140.91, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 2.55. Block has a 1-year low of $48.21 and a 1-year high of $86.92.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.54. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 1.43%. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.62 earnings per share. Block has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.020-4.020 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.020-1.020 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Block will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 25,908 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total value of $2,115,129.12. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 531,746 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,411,743.44. This trade represents a 4.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,511 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.43, for a total value of $783,991.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 423,262 shares in the company, valued at $34,889,486.66. This trade represents a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 308,565 shares of company stock worth $24,872,046 in the last quarter. 11.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Block during the second quarter worth $621,703,000. Hyperion Asset Management Ltd raised its holdings in Block by 6.9% during the second quarter. Hyperion Asset Management Ltd now owns 2,682,854 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $203,897,000 after purchasing an additional 172,848 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Block by 528.2% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,309,296 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $199,153,000 after purchasing an additional 2,782,523 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Block by 1.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,147,988 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $189,353,000 after acquiring an additional 39,112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Block by 1.0% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,624,534 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $157,944,000 after acquiring an additional 25,067 shares during the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Block Company Profile

Block, Inc is a financial technology company that provides payments, commerce, and financial services through an ecosystem of business and consumer products. Formerly known as Square, the company was co-founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and changed its corporate name to Block in 2021.

Its Square ecosystem serves businesses with point-of-sale hardware, payment processing, invoicing, payroll, inventory management, customer engagement, online commerce, and other software tools. Block also offers lending and other financial services to eligible business customers through Square-related products.

For consumers, Block operates Cash App, a mobile financial services platform that supports services such as peer-to-peer payments, money transfers, a Cash App Card, direct deposit, investing, and bitcoin transactions, subject to product and geographic availability.