Brian Grassadonia Sells 1,884 Shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) insider Brian Grassadonia sold 1,884 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.41, for a total value of $123,232.44. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 574,914 shares in the company, valued at $37,605,124.74. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Brian Grassadonia also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, August 21st, Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total value of $539,404.56.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of SQ traded up $1.38 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $67.02. 4,550,759 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,228,191. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.85 and a 1-year high of $87.52. The stock has a market cap of $41.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 2.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $63.99 and its 200 day moving average is $68.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its stake in shares of Block by 45.7% in the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,085,229 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $650,396,000 after purchasing an additional 3,163,975 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC raised its stake in Block by 70.0% during the fourth quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 6,606,269 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $510,995,000 after acquiring an additional 2,720,123 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $2,799,505,000 after acquiring an additional 1,277,043 shares during the period. Gladstone Capital Management LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 244.1% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Capital Management LLP now owns 1,706,691 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $132,013,000 after acquiring an additional 1,210,758 shares during the period. Finally, D1 Capital Partners L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Block by 76.7% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on SQ shares. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Block from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Block from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Block currently has a consensus 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.