Block (NYSE:SQ) Coverage Initiated at New Street Research

New Street Research started coverage on shares of Block (NYSE:SQ) in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a neutral rating and a $70.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on SQ. Susquehanna restated a positive rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. William Blair upgraded shares of Block to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $88.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on shares of Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $86.93.

Block Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SQ opened at $61.29 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $64.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $69.71. Block has a fifty-two week low of $38.85 and a fifty-two week high of $87.52. The firm has a market cap of $37.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 2.49.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.09. Block had a net margin of 3.47% and a return on equity of 3.77%. The firm had revenue of $6.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. Block’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Block will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total value of $539,404.56. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 580,086 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,572,170.22. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total transaction of $539,404.56. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 580,086 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,572,170.22. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Roelof Botha bought 434,405 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 434,405 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,007.75. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,179 shares of company stock valued at $1,833,962 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SQ. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its stake in Block by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 9,567 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $740,000 after purchasing an additional 714 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Block in the 4th quarter worth approximately $512,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Block by 35.3% in the 4th quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 89,776 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,944,000 after purchasing an additional 23,433 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Block by 24.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,724,520 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $133,436,000 after purchasing an additional 334,877 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in Block in the 4th quarter worth approximately $349,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Block Company Profile

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.