Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 61.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 716 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,159 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in Block were worth $48,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SQ. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its holdings in Block by 45.7% during 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 increased its holdings in Block by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 7,670,523 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $494,672,000 after purchasing an additional 934,588 shares during the period. D1 Capital Partners L.P. increased its holdings in Block by 76.7% during 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 during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its holdings in Block by 1,061.0% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 657,667 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,413,000 after purchasing an additional 601,020 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in Block by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,096,614 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,107,712,000 after acquiring an additional 582,826 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SQ has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets cut 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, October 3rd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Block in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, William Blair raised Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six 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 MarketBeat, Block presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $88.79.

Block Price Performance

Shares of SQ opened at $72.52 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $44.75 billion, a PE ratio of 94.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $66.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.11. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.85 and a 1-year high of $87.52.

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 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 net margin of 3.47% and a return on equity of 3.77%. The company’s quarterly 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 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In related news, Director Roelof Botha acquired 434,405 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,007.75. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Roelof Botha acquired 434,405 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,000,007.75. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total transaction of $30,940.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 92,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,715,608.08. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,214 shares of company stock worth $1,637,932 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Block 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.