Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires Shares of 3,006,375 Block, Inc. $XYZ

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 3,006,375 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,223,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.49% of Block as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in XYZ. Cidel Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $311,000. Private Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $380,000. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $565,000. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,062,000. Finally, Praxis Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $508,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 406 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total transaction of $30,356.62. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 126,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,481,284.62. This represents a 0.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 1,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total value of $78,508.50. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 253,956 shares in the company, valued at $18,988,290.12. This represents a 0.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 123,041 shares of company stock valued at $9,355,075 over the last quarter. Insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on XYZ shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Block from $76.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Block from $71.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Block in a research report on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $58.00 target price (up from $50.00) on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.42.

Block Price Performance

NYSE XYZ opened at $79.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 1.96. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $76.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.25. Block, Inc. has a 52-week low of $44.27 and a 52-week high of $99.26. The company has a market cap of $48.50 billion, a PE ratio of 17.04, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 2.71.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.41. Block had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 7.85%. The firm had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.32 billion. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Block Profile

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.