Square (SQ) PT Raised to $44.00

Square (NYSE:SQ) had its price target hoisted by analysts at Jefferies Group from $38.00 to $44.00 in a research note issued on Monday, November 13th, The Fly reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Jefferies Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 26.91% from the company’s current price.

SQ has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Square from $30.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 18th. Vetr downgraded shares of Square from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.12 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, September 12th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Square from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Square in a report on Thursday, October 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Piper Jaffray Companies reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $24.00 price objective on shares of Square in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the company. Square presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $34.45.

Shares of Square (NYSE:SQ) traded down $0.46 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $34.67. 10,462,309 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,521,971. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a market capitalization of $13,471.58, a price-to-earnings ratio of -216.69 and a beta of 4.80. Square has a fifty-two week low of $13.53 and a fifty-two week high of $49.56.

Square (NYSE:SQ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 8th. The technology company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.02. Square had a negative net margin of 3.04% and a negative return on equity of 7.98%. The firm had revenue of $257.12 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $244.95 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.01 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.6% compared to the same quarter last year. analysts forecast that Square will post -0.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In related news, insider Hillary B. Smith sold 75,103 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.56, for a total value of $2,820,868.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 563,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,176,252.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director James Morgan Jr. Mckelvey sold 400,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.72, for a total value of $13,088,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 507,732 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,612,991.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,666,530 shares of company stock worth $61,937,547 in the last quarter. 32.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Square by 114.7% in the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,888,617 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $560,427,000 after acquiring an additional 12,764,491 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Square by 73.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,034,862 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $446,558,000 after acquiring an additional 8,058,892 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Square by 32.8% in the second quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 15,597,830 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $365,925,000 after acquiring an additional 3,853,000 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in shares of Square by 31.0% in the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 13,302,170 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $383,235,000 after acquiring an additional 3,147,558 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Square by 5.8% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 9,076,600 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $212,937,000 after acquiring an additional 498,100 shares during the period. 54.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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About Square

Square, Inc (Square) is a commerce ecosystem. The Company enables its sellers start, run and grow their businesses. It combines software with hardware to enable sellers to turn mobile devices and computing devices into payments and point-of-sale solutions. Once a seller downloads the Square Point of Sale mobile application, they can take their first payment.