Owen Britton Jennings Sells 822 Shares of Block (NYSE:XYZ) Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 822 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total value of $52,591.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 242,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,529,097.64. This trade represents a 0.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Owen Britton Jennings also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, November 21st, Owen Britton Jennings sold 10,417 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.40, for a total transaction of $639,603.80.

Block Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $71.52 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.45. Block, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.27 and a twelve month high of $94.25. The company has a current ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The company has a market capitalization of $43.46 billion, a PE ratio of 14.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 2.66.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $6.11 billion for the quarter. Block had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 5.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.53 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on XYZ. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Block from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 2nd. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Block from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.94.

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.