Insider Selling: Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CFO Sells 5,935 Shares of Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 5,935 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.53, for a total transaction of $388,920.55. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 255,496 shares in the company, valued at $16,742,652.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Amrita Ahuja also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, August 21st, Amrita Ahuja sold 6,661 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total transaction of $430,966.70.
• On Monday, July 8th, Amrita Ahuja sold 1,147 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.57, for a total value of $76,355.79.

Block Price Performance

SQ stock traded up $1.38 during trading on Friday, hitting $67.02. The stock had a trading volume of 4,550,759 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,228,191. The stock has a market cap of $41.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 2.49. 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 company’s 50 day moving average price is $63.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.21. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.85 and a 1-year high of $87.52.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced 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. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The business had revenue of $6.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SQ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th. William Blair upgraded shares of Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, New Street Research began coverage on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, September 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Block has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.31.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of SQ. Bares Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Block by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,487,251 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $347,089,000 after buying an additional 87,826 shares during the period. 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 valued at $2,799,505,000 after acquiring an additional 1,277,043 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC grew its position in Block by 13.9% during the second quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 7,670,523 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $494,672,000 after acquiring an additional 934,588 shares during the period. &PARTNERS raised its holdings in shares of Block by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 8,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 659 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 4th quarter worth about $1,184,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

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.