Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ – Get Rating) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 3,364 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.
A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Block by 6,085.0% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,805,100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $241,508,000 after acquiring an additional 1,775,915 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its stake in shares of Block by 12.4% in the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 7,221,371 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $443,826,000 after acquiring an additional 796,675 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 141.4% in the first quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 209,029 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,344,000 after acquiring an additional 122,440 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Block by 12.6% in the first quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 860,876 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $116,735,000 after acquiring an additional 96,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Block by 10.0% in the first quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 963,857 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $130,699,000 after acquiring an additional 87,461 shares during the last quarter. 62.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analyst Ratings Changes
SQ has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Block from $134.00 to $114.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 4th. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group downgraded shares of Block from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $120.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Block from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Block from $150.00 to $107.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 20th. Finally, BTIG Research dropped their price target on shares of Block from $175.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Friday, November 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and thirty-three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $119.90.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Block news, insider Alyssa Henry sold 30,769 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.71, for a total value of $1,652,602.99. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 422,615 shares in the company, valued at $22,698,651.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Block news, insider Alyssa Henry sold 30,769 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.71, for a total value of $1,652,602.99. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 422,615 shares in the company, valued at $22,698,651.65. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sivan Whiteley sold 4,045 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.61, for a total transaction of $220,897.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 108,220 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,909,894.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 381,967 shares of company stock worth $23,832,661. Insiders own 11.52% of the company’s stock.
Block Price Performance
NYSE:SQ opened at $71.66 on Friday. Block, Inc. has a 52-week low of $51.34 and a 52-week high of $241.50. The company has a market cap of $41.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -77.05 and a beta of 2.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a current ratio of 1.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.12.
Block (NYSE:SQ – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 3rd. The technology company reported $0.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by $0.16. Block had a negative return on equity of 2.10% and a negative net margin of 2.97%. The firm had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.48 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post -0.7 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.
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