Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. Sells 1,395 Shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 15.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,423 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,395 shares during the quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Block were worth $479,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bares Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Block by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,487,251 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $347,089,000 after purchasing an additional 87,826 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Block by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,799,505,000 after acquiring an additional 1,277,043 shares in the last quarter. &PARTNERS boosted its holdings in Block by 8.3% in the first quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 8,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $731,000 after acquiring an additional 659 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new stake in Block in the fourth quarter worth about $1,184,000. Finally, CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp acquired a new stake in Block in the first quarter worth about $2,487,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SQ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Block from $92.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.34.

Block Stock Down 0.4 %

Block stock opened at $67.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.57 billion, a PE ratio of 87.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 2.49. Block, Inc. has a 12 month low of $38.85 and a 12 month high of $87.52. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.82.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $6.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.27 billion. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The business’s revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Roelof Botha purchased 434,405 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $57.55 per share, with a total value of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,007.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Roelof Botha purchased 434,405 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $57.55 per share, with a total value of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,007.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,661 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total value of $430,966.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 264,697 shares in the company, valued at $17,125,895.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,179 shares of company stock worth $1,833,962 over the last three months. 10.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.