Block, Inc. $XYZ Shares Acquired by J. Stern & Co. LLP

J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its holdings in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 2,040.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,299,565 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,192,110 shares during the quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP’s holdings in Block were worth $149,679,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of XYZ. Baird Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter worth about $1,866,000. Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter worth about $516,000. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter worth about $385,000. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,861,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on XYZ. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Block from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Block from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Block from $51.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.42.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,166 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.01, for a total transaction of $555,369.66. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 601,002 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,874,146.02. This represents a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Anthony Mathew Eisen sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.26, for a total transaction of $433,560.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,972,990 shares in the company, valued at $142,568,257.40. This trade represents a 0.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 211,680 shares of company stock valued at $15,861,321 over the last three months. 11.37% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Block Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $74.54 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 2.56. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $48.21 and a 1-year high of $82.50. The company’s fifty day moving average is $69.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.55. The company had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter. Block had a net margin of 3.30% and a return on equity of 7.02%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. Block has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.860-0.860 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.850-3.850 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 2.42 EPS for the current year.

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.