Bank of America Has Lowered Expectations for Block (NYSE:XYZ) Stock Price

Block (NYSE:XYZ) had its target price cut by investment analysts at Bank of America from $85.00 to $80.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 34.92% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on XYZ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Block from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. Truist Financial raised Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $72.00 to $77.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on Block from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. 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, February 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Block in a report on Monday, December 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.91.

Block Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Block stock opened at $59.30 on Wednesday. Block has a 12-month low of $44.27 and a 12-month high of $82.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 2.65. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.25. 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. The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion for the quarter. Block had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 6.66%. Block’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.71 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other Block news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.41, for a total transaction of $225,422.55. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 231,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,664,323.42. This represents a 1.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 10,349 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $517,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 503,784 shares in the company, valued at $25,189,200. This trade represents a 2.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 20,352 shares of company stock valued at $1,165,720. 10.85% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Block

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of XYZ. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Block by 23.1% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Block by 41.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 4,727,217 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Block by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,406,899 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $934,121,000 after acquiring an additional 67,560 shares in the last quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 acquired a new stake in shares of Block during the second quarter worth about $627,233,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.