Block (NYSE:SQ) Stock Price Down 1.9%

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)’s stock price dropped 1.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $60.95 and last traded at $60.95. Approximately 1,541,902 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 9,391,995 shares. The stock had previously closed at $62.15.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SQ has been the subject of several analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Block from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Block from $98.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective (down from $62.00) on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.59.

Block Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $69.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.19 billion, a PE ratio of 80.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 2.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a current ratio of 1.64.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The technology company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.32. Block had a return on equity of 2.04% and a net margin of 2.18%. The firm had revenue of $5.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.75 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total value of $42,375.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 68,323 shares in the company, valued at $5,790,374.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 111,666 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.73, for a total transaction of $9,238,128.18. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 485,645 shares in the company, valued at $40,177,410.85. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total value of $42,375.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,790,374.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 247,739 shares of company stock valued at $18,584,747. 10.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SQ. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Block during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $528,996,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Block by 3,525.7% in the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,935,002 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $459,072,000 after purchasing an additional 5,771,310 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the third quarter valued at approximately $172,001,000. Trivest Advisors Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $157,021,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Block by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,799,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,277,043 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

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.