The Goldman Sachs Group Reiterates Buy Rating for Block (NYSE:SQ)

Block (NYSE:SQ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $80.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price target indicates a potential upside of 24.94% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Block from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Block from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price objective (down from $62.00) on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.13.

Block Stock Performance

SQ opened at $64.03 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $71.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.64, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market cap of $39.51 billion, a PE ratio of 83.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 2.54. Block has a 1 year low of $38.85 and a 1 year high of $87.52.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The technology company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.32. Block had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 2.04%. The firm had revenue of $5.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.75 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Block will post 1.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 5,155 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total value of $367,345.30. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 599,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,695,429. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,788 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total value of $483,712.88. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,886 shares in the company, valued at $20,158,456.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 5,155 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total transaction of $367,345.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 599,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,695,429. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 247,739 shares of company stock valued at $18,584,747 in the last 90 days. 10.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Block during the fourth quarter worth $528,996,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its stake in Block by 3,525.7% in the 4th quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,935,002 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $459,072,000 after purchasing an additional 5,771,310 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in Block during the 3rd quarter worth about $172,001,000. Trivest Advisors Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the 4th quarter valued at about $157,021,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,799,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,277,043 shares in the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Block Company Profile

Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV® chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV® chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions.