Strategic Blueprint LLC Buys New Position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Strategic Blueprint LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 3,048 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Block in the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Block in the 3rd quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $49,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Block Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of SQ stock opened at $72.15 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $68.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $66.90. Block, Inc. has a twelve month low of $42.78 and a twelve month high of $87.52. The company has a market capitalization of $44.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.09. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The company had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.27 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other Block news, Director Roelof Botha purchased 434,405 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,007.75. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Block news, Director Roelof Botha purchased 434,405 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,007.75. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total value of $30,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 92,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,715,608.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 25,214 shares of company stock worth $1,637,932. 10.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SQ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price target on Block from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. New Street Research began coverage on Block in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $99.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, William Blair raised Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Block has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.79.

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.