Rothschild & Co Redburn Upgrades Block (NYSE:XYZ) to Neutral

Block (NYSE:XYZ) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Rothschild & Co Redburn from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $55.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $45.00. Rothschild & Co Redburn’s price target would suggest a potential downside of 6.76% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently commented on XYZ. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Block to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $88.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.14.

Block Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $58.99 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $60.13 and its 200 day moving average is $66.82. Block has a 12-month low of $44.27 and a 12-month high of $82.50. The stock has a market cap of $35.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.09, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 2.65. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.39. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.The business had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Block

In related news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,101 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total value of $70,441.98. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 271,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,393,858.72. This represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,173 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.09, for a total value of $76,350.57. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 98,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,405,637.08. This trade represents a 1.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 20,352 shares of company stock worth $1,165,720 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Block by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,626,485 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,887,366,000 after acquiring an additional 12,709,824 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Block by 41.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 16,023,441 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,042,966,000 after purchasing an additional 4,727,217 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Block by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,406,899 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $934,121,000 after purchasing an additional 67,560 shares during the period. Sands Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Block by 12.2% during the third quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 11,603,057 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $838,553,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,317 shares during the period. Finally, Dragoneer Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block in the second quarter worth about $627,233,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Company Profile

Block (NYSE:XYZ) is a financial technology company that builds products and services to facilitate electronic payments, commerce, and consumer finance. Its principal business lines include a seller-focused ecosystem that provides point-of-sale hardware and software, payment processing, invoicing, payroll and lending services, and a consumer-facing platform that offers peer-to-peer payments, banking-like features, and investing. Block’s portfolio also encompasses music streaming and buy-now-pay-later capabilities through businesses acquired to broaden its reach beyond core payments.

The company was founded as Square in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and later rebranded to Block to reflect a diversified set of businesses across payments, consumer finance, and emerging technologies.