Piper Sandler Cuts Block (NYSE:XYZ) Price Target to $51.00

by · The Cerbat Gem

Block (NYSE:XYZ – Free Report) had its price objective decreased by Piper Sandler from $55.00 to $51.00 in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has an underweight rating on the technology company’s stock.

XYZ has been the subject of several other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Thursday, November 20th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $83.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Block in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.82.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Block

Block Price Performance

Shares of XYZ stock opened at $65.96 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a current ratio of 2.18. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $64.59 and its 200-day moving average price is $71.51. The firm has a market cap of $40.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 2.66. Block has a fifty-two week low of $44.27 and a fifty-two week high of $94.25.

Block (NYSE:XYZ – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.29. Block had a return on equity of 5.54% and a net margin of 12.99%.The business had revenue of $6.11 billion during the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,085 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total transaction of $500,946.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 521,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,302,969.92. This represents a 1.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 10,417 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.40, for a total value of $639,603.80. Following the transaction, the insider owned 243,540 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,953,356. This trade represents a 4.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 54,796 shares of company stock worth $3,395,943 over the last ninety days. 10.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Block by 23.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,626,485 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,887,366,000 after buying an additional 12,709,824 shares during the last quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Block by 12.2% in the third quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 11,603,057 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $838,553,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,317 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in Block by 192.7% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,296,224 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $816,378,000 after purchasing an additional 7,436,380 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Block during the 2nd quarter worth about $634,721,000. Finally, Dragoneer Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter worth about $627,233,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

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