EP Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New $420,000 Investment in Block, Inc. $XYZ

EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 11,031 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $420,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of XYZ. Baird Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,866,000. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $516,000. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the second quarter worth approximately $385,000. Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new stake in Block in the second quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,861,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Block Price Performance

Shares of Block stock opened at $82.73 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 2.21. Block, Inc. has a one year low of $48.21 and a one year high of $86.75. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $69.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $49.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 2.53.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.54. Block had a net margin of 1.43% and a return on equity of 8.10%. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.62 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Block has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.020-4.020 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.020-1.020 EPS. Analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.69 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on XYZ. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Block from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Block in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Barclays started coverage on shares of Block in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $100.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Craig Hallum initiated coverage on shares of Block in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Block has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.84.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 1,317 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.48, for a total transaction of $107,309.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 460,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,491,229.44. This represents a 0.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,511 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.43, for a total transaction of $783,991.73. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 423,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,889,486.66. This represents a 2.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 495,756 shares of company stock worth $39,090,259. 11.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.