Insider Selling: Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CAO Sells 500 Shares of Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total value of $33,500.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 90,460 shares in the company, valued at $6,060,820. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Ajmere Dale also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, August 21st, Ajmere Dale sold 1,406 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total value of $90,968.20.
• On Tuesday, August 13th, Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total transaction of $30,940.00.

Block Stock Up 0.9 %

Block stock traded up $0.58 during trading on Thursday, reaching $65.64. 4,342,384 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,247,403. Block, Inc. has a 52-week low of $38.85 and a 52-week high of $87.52. The firm has a market cap of $40.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 84.47, a PEG 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 is $63.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.23.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Block

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in Block by 45.7% during the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,085,229 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $650,396,000 after buying an additional 3,163,975 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Block by 70.0% during the fourth quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 6,606,269 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $510,995,000 after acquiring an additional 2,720,123 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Block by 3.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Gladstone Capital Management LLP lifted its stake in shares of Block by 244.1% in the fourth quarter. Gladstone Capital Management LLP now owns 1,706,691 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $132,013,000 after acquiring an additional 1,210,758 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D1 Capital Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in Block by 76.7% in the second quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 1,831,342 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $118,103,000 after purchasing an additional 795,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on SQ shares. William Blair upgraded shares of Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Block from $93.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. New Street Research began coverage on Block in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Block in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.31.

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.