Block’s (SQ) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Canaccord Genuity Group

Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Block (NYSE:SQ) in a research report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $95.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. KeyCorp increased their price target on Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Block from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Block from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and set a $95.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, William Blair restated a market perform rating on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $87.55.

Block Stock Up 5.9 %

Block stock opened at $73.56 on Friday. Block has a twelve month low of $38.85 and a twelve month high of $87.52. The stock has a market cap of $45.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 95.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 2.57. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $77.61 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.53. The company has a quick ratio of 1.90, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.69 billion. Block had a return on equity of 2.07% and a net margin of 2.18%. As a group, analysts expect that Block will post 1.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 113,668 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.56, for a total transaction of $7,679,410.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 603,861 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,796,849.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 113,668 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.56, for a total value of $7,679,410.08. Following the sale, the insider now owns 603,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,796,849.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 656 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total transaction of $42,180.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 68,823 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,425,318.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 477,469 shares of company stock valued at $34,963,585 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SQ. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Block in the fourth quarter worth $528,996,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its holdings in Block by 3,525.7% during the 4th quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,935,002 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $459,072,000 after buying an additional 5,771,310 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block during the third quarter valued at about $172,001,000. Trivest Advisors Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the fourth quarter worth about $157,021,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Block by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,799,505,000 after acquiring an additional 1,277,043 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.