D.A. Davidson & CO. Purchases Shares of 15,720 Block, Inc. $XYZ

D.A. Davidson & CO. purchased a new stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 15,720 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,068,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in Block in the second quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at approximately $73,000. S Bank Fund Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at approximately $92,000. Private Trust Co. NA acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at approximately $94,000. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter valued at approximately $96,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas Exane cut Block from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $86.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Block from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday. BTIG Research set a $80.00 price objective on Block and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, Macquarie raised their price objective on Block from $50.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.42.

Block Stock Performance

NYSE:XYZ opened at $80.14 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $48.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.16, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 2.71. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.27 and a 1-year high of $99.26.

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

Insider Transactions at Block

In other Block news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 10,424 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total value of $763,036.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 263,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,288,712.40. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,966 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total value of $729,511.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 298,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,845,149.20. This represents a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 123,041 shares of company stock worth $9,355,075. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Block Company 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.