Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Block (NYSE:XYZ)

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Block (NYSE:XYZ) in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $90.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Block from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Macquarie lifted their target price on Block from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Thursday. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded 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. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Block from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $88.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Block has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.23.

Block Stock Down 17.7 %

Shares of NYSE XYZ opened at $68.34 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $42.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.52. The company has a quick ratio of 2.07, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Block has a 1 year low of $55.00 and a 1 year high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.11). Block had a return on equity of 5.24% and a net margin of 4.73%. The firm had revenue of $6.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.23 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Block will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 2,044 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.72, for a total transaction of $177,255.68. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 83,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,281,531.52. The trade was a 2.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $272,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 85,235 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,097,325. The trade was a 3.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 9,247 shares of company stock valued at $832,865 in the last quarter. 10.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in Block by 0.5% in the 3rd 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 lifted its stake in Block by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,083,113 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $72,709,000 after buying an additional 128,832 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,315,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its stake in Block by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,233,102 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $686,948,000 after buying an additional 147,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in Block in the 4th quarter valued at $10,779,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.