Block (NYSE:SQ) Receives Buy Rating from Benchmark

Benchmark reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Block (NYSE:SQ) in a research note released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $99.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

SQ has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a buy rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a buy rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Monday, June 24th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Block from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Block from $99.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twenty-seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Block presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $87.22.

Block Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE SQ traded up $0.48 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $60.38. The stock had a trading volume of 17,898,418 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,386,237. The firm has a market cap of $37.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 2.52. Block has a twelve month low of $38.85 and a twelve month high of $87.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a current ratio of 1.64. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $64.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.18.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.27 billion. Block had a net margin of 3.47% and a return on equity of 3.81%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Block will post 1.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total transaction of $483,712.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 282,886 shares in the company, valued at $20,158,456.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,788 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total transaction of $483,712.88. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 282,886 shares in the company, valued at $20,158,456.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,500 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $175,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 92,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,443,360. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,505 shares of company stock worth $1,683,811. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 0.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,511,250 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,088,122,000 after acquiring an additional 318,549 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Block by 4.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,096,614 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,107,712,000 after acquiring an additional 582,826 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 10,377,973 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $802,736,000 after acquiring an additional 75,161 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its stake in shares of Block by 45.7% during the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,085,229 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $650,396,000 after acquiring an additional 3,163,975 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 8,982,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $694,735,000 after acquiring an additional 71,735 shares in the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Block

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.