Blair William & Co. IL Has $18.82 Million Stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Blair William & Co. IL boosted its position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 3.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 222,495 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,556 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Block were worth $18,819,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Montag A & Associates Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 843.2% during the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 349 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in Block during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Tidemark LLC acquired a new position in Block during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Block during the 1st quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Vima LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 471 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $30,318.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 92,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,977,784.42. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 471 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $30,318.27. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 92,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,977,784.42. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $175,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 92,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,443,360. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 138,173 shares of company stock worth $9,363,222. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on SQ. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective (down from $62.00) on shares of Block in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Block from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.33.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SQ traded up $0.08 during trading on Friday, reaching $68.08. 5,159,215 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,948,938. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 88.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 2.52. Block, Inc. has a 52-week low of $38.85 and a 52-week high of $87.52. The company has a 50-day moving average of $66.19 and a 200-day moving average of $70.67.

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

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.