Block (NYSE:SQ) Upgraded at Raymond James

Raymond James upgraded shares of Block (NYSE:SQ) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Raymond James currently has $115.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on SQ. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Block from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Block in a report on Friday, November 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Block from $87.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Macquarie boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised Block from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.94.

Block Stock Up 6.2 %

SQ stock opened at $92.16 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $57.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.78, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 2.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $87.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.19. Block has a 12 month low of $55.00 and a 12 month high of $99.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 88,791 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,103,280. This trade represents a 1.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.18, for a total value of $759,347.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 563,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,415,854.92. The trade was a 1.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,599 shares of company stock worth $2,120,494 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SQ. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Block by 0.5% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,651,886 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $110,891,000 after buying an additional 8,200 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its position in shares of Block by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,083,113 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $72,709,000 after purchasing an additional 128,832 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its stake in shares of Block by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,233,102 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $686,948,000 after purchasing an additional 147,873 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Block by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 253,787 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $17,037,000 after purchasing an additional 14,822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Block by 13.9% in the second quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 7,670,523 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $494,672,000 after purchasing an additional 934,588 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

About Block

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.