Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec Purchases New Stake in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec acquired a new position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 44,300 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,687,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XYZ. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth $621,703,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Block during the second quarter worth about $535,305,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Block during the fourth quarter worth about $484,387,000. Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $368,213,000. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Block by 41.8% in the 4th 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 43,348 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $3,467,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 557,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,612,320. This trade represents a 7.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Anthony Mathew Eisen sold 135,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.81, for a total transaction of $10,426,957.50. Following the sale, the director owned 2,032,990 shares in the company, valued at $156,153,961.90. The trade was a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 501,756 shares of company stock valued at $39,582,259 in the last three months. 11.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on XYZ. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Block from $78.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Argus upped their price objective on Block from $86.00 to $103.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Block in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Block from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Clear Str raised Block to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Block presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.84.

Block Price Performance

Block stock opened at $83.58 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.21, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Block, Inc. has a 52-week low of $48.21 and a 52-week high of $86.92. The firm has a market cap of $50.21 billion, a PE ratio of 149.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 2.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $79.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.09.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.54. The business had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter. Block had a net margin of 1.43% and a return on equity of 8.10%. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.62 EPS. Block has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.020-4.020 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.020-1.020 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.