Block (NYSE:XYZ) Insider Chrysty Esperanza Sells 3,000 Shares of Stock
by Teresa Graham · The Cerbat GemBlock, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ – Get Free Report) insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $225,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 268,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,112,675. This represents a 1.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
Block Trading Up 1.0%
XYZ stock opened at $72.47 on Thursday. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $44.27 and a 1-year high of $82.50. The firm has a market cap of $43.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 2.61. The business’s 50 day moving average is $60.51 and its 200-day moving average is $64.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.
Block (NYSE:XYZ – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.Block’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 2.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Institutional Trading of Block
Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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. Ameriprise Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Block during the 2nd quarter worth about $535,305,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Block during the 4th quarter worth about $484,387,000. Capital World Investors increased its position in Block by 192.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,296,224 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $816,378,000 after acquiring an additional 7,436,380 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $368,213,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
XYZ has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Block in a report on Tuesday. They set a “market perform” rating and a $74.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Block from $105.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Block from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $72.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.67.
Read Our Latest Analysis on XYZ
About Block
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.