Insider Selling: Block (NYSE:XYZ) Insider Sells $66,411.24 in Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) insider Brian Grassadonia sold 1,038 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.98, for a total value of $66,411.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 520,314 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,289,689.72. This represents a 0.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Brian Grassadonia also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, January 6th, Brian Grassadonia sold 1,983 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.52, for a total value of $135,875.16.
• On Monday, November 24th, Brian Grassadonia sold 8,085 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.96, for a total transaction of $500,946.60.
• On Friday, November 21st, Brian Grassadonia sold 6,460 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.40, for a total transaction of $396,644.00.
• On Wednesday, October 8th, Brian Grassadonia sold 35,145 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $2,811,600.00.

Block Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of NYSE XYZ opened at $70.15 on Friday. Block, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.27 and a fifty-two week high of $94.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 2.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.18 and a quick ratio of 2.18. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.45.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its earnings results 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 net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 5.54%. The company had revenue of $6.11 billion during the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on XYZ. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Block from $58.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $94.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Block from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Block from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-three have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.94.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Block by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,439 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $321,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 853 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 0.8% in the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 21,183 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,561,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares in the last quarter. Vista Investment Partners II LLC boosted its position in shares of Block by 3.6% during the third quarter. Vista Investment Partners II LLC now owns 5,334 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $385,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC boosted its position in shares of Block by 59.7% during the third quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 495 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.